


Her Other Friend

by Ma_Kir



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Study, Gen, Redemption, Resolution, Speculation, Tragedy, What-If, cuteness, dark themes, steven universe the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-16 22:23:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 36,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20610323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ma_Kir/pseuds/Ma_Kir
Summary: On another world, in a garden isolated from the rest of the universe, Pink Diamond made other decisions, other choices with her playmate: with the Gem created for her amusement, and her companionship. And when she didn't, sometimes other choices were still made. These other actions created different paths and, ultimately, other consequences.





	1. Prime Facet

Pink Diamond has received her communication from Blue and Yellow. 

She's finally got what she wanted. The opportunity is there. The thing she'd been petitioning them for, over and again. Reasoning. Pleading. Demanding. Raging. Accepting. But then, they told her that they discovered a new world.

And Pink is going to have her new colony.

Her new colony: a whole planet, and a moon not unlike this garden. 

She feels a mixture of emotions as she processes the news. And then ... Spinel is there. 

Spinel with her wiry limbs. With her wide, bulbous, innocent eyes, and her broad smile. Her hair in two buns, her heart-shaped pink gem on her chest glittering from the light of the stars, and her too-large gloved hands, and feet. They are all affectations, of course, programmed into her by the nature of her creation, by the Authority, to fulfill her role as were so many other Gems. In this case, Spinel had been made to entertain Pink, to keep her amused, to encourage her to smile.   
  
To be her friend. 

She has never once deviated from this role. She has never disappointed Pink. Even now, Pink still thinks that Spinel is adorable. Her eyes are so large, and trusting. The smile on her face is real. But is it really? It isn't a fair thought, of course. All Gems are manufactured, including Diamonds. They all have their place. Their duties. Their roles to play. 

Spinel has run around with her. She's made the most ridiculous, funny faces in her presence. She tells jokes, really bad ones. Even now, a fond smile still comes to Pink's face at the memory of them. She pirouettes and jumps, and makes all kinds of stunts. Pink even made some of her Pebbles to mimic her funnier actions when the two of them couldn't always be together, in the Palace, in her room ...

And Spinel juggles. She taught Pink how to juggle, and make faces, just as she had shown her Pearl ...  
  
The thought hits Pink's core harder than any Shattering. It twists her up inside. She'd been warned so many times. Had been locked away many more times. And the lesson never took. It never took until her Pearl ... 

Spinel is happy. She's laughing, like she always does. Pink admits to herself, especially after ... her Pearl, that the smiles come harder to her now. She's tired of being small, of feeling powerless. Pink isn't respected by the others. But she wants to be. She wants to have something of her own. She wants to have something that no one will be able to take away from her. 

Spinel never truly understood what happened that day. That isn't Spinel's purpose. Yellow and Blue thought of the Gem as her pet, as her toy. It is just one more element that counted against her in their eyes ... and in the eyes of White Diamond. Spinel wants to come with her, to her new colony. Pink smiles, but feels how weak it is. That same carefree wonder isn't there anymore. She wants it back. She is tired of being where she is, of being stuck here. Spinel has shown the same tricks, funny once upon a time, but they are like the dances in her Court: perfect, methodical ... boring. Pink hates that thought as it comes into her mind. 

Pink feels Spinel clutch her arm, like she always does. It used to fill her with a sense of camaraderie, and comfort. Even joy at playing with her friend. Now it ... it makes her feel nothing at all. Worse, it almost repels her. It's the same tired routine again. But Spinel is a Gem. She has her own thoughts and feelings. Doesn't she? Is she more than just a toy? Just a role?   
  
Just what she has been made to be?   
  
This has all come to a head. Pink now has to make a decision. Spinel will follow her to the ends of the universe if she lets her. Always at her side. Always in her space. She has to make a decision. But looking into those eyes, into that grin, and the way she sways with excitement ... The memories of them running through her garden, and playing pranks on other Gems, on even the other Diamonds, the way she made her smile. But the sense of duty, always duty as a Diamond, and the expectations of the Authority, and needing to leave_ leave **leave ... **_****  
  
Finally, Pink Diamond kneels down. She is the smallest of her kind, but she always makes sure to meet her Gems at eye-level. She knows what it is like to feel small, and how great it is to feel seen. She smiles at Spinel, a wrenching feeling in her core, and tells her ...  
  
She tells her they are going to play a game. 


	2. Facet I: Euphoria

Pink Diamond tells Spinel that they are going to play a game. 

They are going to play a game of tag. However, Spinel is to close her eyes and count to at least five hundred, to give Pink a head start. Pink knows she could do this all differently, of course. She could just order her to remain where she is, to accomplish her final task. But they've played together for centuries, perhaps even aeons. No, Pink wants to play with Spinel. She owes her that much. Whatever Spinel's rationale, whether she interacts with her out of a sense of programming, or genuine loyalty, or ... more, Pink wants to make sure that her playmate is as happy as she can be. 

She doesn't want to hurt her. She wants to have one good moment with her.

Spinel closes her eyes after Pink puts her hands over them, placing the other's over-sized gloves there in their stead. She's gentle. Pink always tries to be gentle with her Gems, her Pearl ... and Spinel. She's seen the strength of her fellow Diamonds. She knows her own strength, the hard way. She leaves the Gem as she counts down, and gathers the things that she needs from her storehouse. There isn't much that she needs to take with her. Her new ... Pearl is awaiting her and the fanfare back on Homeworld. Her entourage most likely has assembled everything else she -- a Diamond -- would want. 

But as she goes through the storehouse, she finally finds what she's looking for. Pink never thought she would have to use this herself, but her fellow Diamonds insisted she have one. Just in case. 

It's quite superfluous, really. Any of their Gem subjects would gladly do this for her, and for any Gem under her power. It is actually, as Blue would put it, beneath her. But Yellow, and in particular White, insisted that she have one: either for her staff to have on hand if and when they visited this garden, or for her to use if she deemed it necessary. 

Spinel is still where she left her, continuing to count down. Pink holds the object in her hands. She activated it a while ago, glowing with the hue of her own colour. It's beautiful in its own way, she has to admit to herself, at the length and breadth of it. Like a sliver of a rosy sky. There aren't many of these, and with good reason. Even the highest circles of the Authority -- and the Diamonds themselves -- do not use them frivolously. 

Pink Diamond closes her eyes for a few moments. She thinks about everything she and Spinel have done together. All of their japes and adventures. But she has to be beyond that now. And Spinel will follow her, getting in the way of her new work, always cloying and in her personal space, and her fellow Diamonds will never let her take her with her, and she thinks about _her Pearl and her cracked face, and the colour leeching out of her projected form, out of her gem ..._  
  
She is about to swing the Gem Rejuvenator towards the oblivious Spinel. Then, she stops ... just inches away from her gem. Tears form in Pink's eyes. No. Her mouth steels into a firm line. She has to do this. Spinel deserves another chance. She can entertain someone else. She can continue to fulfill her duty.   
  
She can have another life.  
  
Pink taps the tip of the Rejuvenator against Spinel, watching as the Gem, her playmate, dissolves back into her gem. Pink catches it, in the palms of her hands. Then, she summons her power, and bubbles her. Maybe she will keep her gem in her room on Homeworld, or give it to someone else. Or maybe she will just leave it her, as a testament to the time they spent together. 

Maybe someone will find her, and she will bond to them. She will be their friend. Maybe she will rest for a while. Whatever subsequent decision Pink makes about Spinel's gem, she knows that she is the only one, now, that will remember their time together. Very quietly, she mouths words to the gem, the pink heart in its pink bubble wrapped around it like an eternal hug.   
  
_Thank you. _


	3. Facet I: Colourless

Pink Diamond looks down at Spinel, into her eyes, seeing the trusting expression on her face, the earnest devotion, the genuine ... _need_ to stay with her.

She can only imagine the pain that the other would feel if she left her here, or on Homeworld. She has imprinted herself onto Pink. Pink knows that Spinel won't simply become another Gem's entertainment or companion when she's gone. She will find her. She thinks about using the Rejuvenator, thinking about how it would at least remove the pain of their separation from her, softening the blow, letting Spinel have another chance at her existence doing what she does best ... 

But she can't do it. 

Pink would rob Spinel of all the good times they've had. She would take all of her experiences away from her. She isn't even sure that Spinel would remember how to crack jokes, play japes, or juggle if she reset her. She sees the joy it brings the Gem, and she can't find it in herself to do that.

She also can't find it in herself to leave her here.

So, Pink tells Spinel they are going to play a new game. That they are going on an adventure. 

Against Pink's better judgment, they go back to Homeworld together. Spinel is excited. She is almost literally bouncing from the walls. There is a part of Pink, that didn't exist before, that wants Spinel to ... tone it down a bit, to not draw as much attention to herself. It is such a contrast to their schemes and games from their earlier days, when Pink never thought about the consequences of those actions at all, when everything was just something to be made fun of, or made into fun. 

Of course, her fellow Diamonds end up summoning her. 

Pink isn't surprised at what happens. Blue Diamond tells her that her Pearl, her new Pearl, is more than enough to take with her. Yellow Diamond agrees, and says that while a Pearl is an excellent administrator -- and this Pearl knows her place -- a Spinel is too much of a distraction. Blue is sympathetic, but there is a sternness in her judgment as there always is. Yellow simply looks bored, as though she has dealt with her antics before and one too many times, but there is a tension there too. In fact, both Diamonds are fairly hesitant as they sit on their thrones, and look above them.   
  
White Diamond regards them all: Yellow's exasperation masking her stress, Blue's attempt at empathy that covers her fear, Pink's own halfhearted shadow of rebellion, Pearl's obedience at the side of her Diamond ... and White Pearl's pale, spider-webbed visage smiling at all of them. It is a special occasion, as White would generally just talk through ... her Pearl. But this is supposed to be Pink's day. This is when she takes responsibility, and finally does her part beyond her duties and pageants of the Court, to expand the power of the Great Diamond Authority. Finally, she is maturing. Finally, she is reaching her full potential, and transcending the flaws and weaknesses of her design for the overall good of Gemkind.

And Spinel, also smiling, and bouncing around on the spot. But even Pink can see the edge around her eyes. 

Pink tries to get them to see reason. She tells them that Spinel would be good for morale. That she would entertain the troops and personnel. That her mastery of her shape could allow her to go to places on their new world that even other Gems wouldn't consider. Yellow and Blue have their counter-arguments. That there are Gems for exploration, that Gems do what their Diamond commands them to do, that they do not need to be entertained, that they should be rewarded for the work they do and nothing more, and that their reward is their continued existence and dedication to the Authority. That there is no place for an entertainer on a new colony for the Great Diamond Authority. For a toy.

Then, White Diamond speaks. It doesn't take long. She ponders if, perhaps, they were too premature in granting Pink this opportunity. If perhaps, she hasn't grown up yet. Pink thinks about the dark room of the Tower, and sees White Pearl, and looks at the Pearl at her side politely smiling but cautious at the proceedings. She considers being in this Court, in her room, and White Diamond looming over her. She remembers when the four of them used to have so much fun together, before the Authority grew and grew, and it became all about their power.   
  
And her Pearl ...   
  
And the twisting feeling inside of her, the suffocation of it.   
  
Eventually, she agrees with them. Anything. Just to get out of here. Spinel, however, doesn't stay silent. Pink, in retrospect, realizes this. She can't quite remember what Spinel says. If she pleaded with the Diamonds. If she asked Pink what was happening. If she even dared to tell White Diamond a terrible joke.   
  
Whatever the case was, in whatever timeline, White looks down on Spinel and mentions how she can see the pain inside of her. How she can see the weakness of Pink's colour coming to the fore. How Pink still has to master that power, and accept their guidance. And how she will help this poor, desperate extension of Pink achieve the perfection she was denied.  
  
Pink never has the chance to cry out. Or reach out. All she sees is Spinel, looking at her, as her colour bleeds away from her very being, replaced with pale, cold, ivory. White smiles and says she has made it all better, as usual. Even Yellow and Blue look uncomfortable at the sight. White tells Spinel, whose face has become blissful and empty, to say goodbye to Pink.  
  
Spinel says "Goodbye, Pink" in White's voice, just as White Pearl has done. She hates it. She hates it so much. It breaks something deep inside of Pink that she knows she can never truly heal.  
  
Nevertheless, she accepts her appointment to her colony, and the fanfare, and the celebrations, and everything that comes with it. And when she is finally on her moon base, Pink tries not to let Pearl see the tears that come, as she ensconces herself in the command room, noticing just how silent, and empty everything is around her. Just realizing how alone she truly feels.  
  
Just wondering if Spinel, right now, feels anything at all. 


	4. Facet I: Change

Pink Diamond looks down at Spinel, and realizes she can't do it. 

She can't leave her here. She can't take away her memories, and reset her. She can't take her back to Homeworld and leave her with the other Diamonds ... or White. 

They have gone through so much together. Spinel has been with her for so long, she almost doesn't even recall a time without her. They've grown apart. Or, rather, Pink knows she has. Despite herself, she has found that she's needed to take things seriously. It isn't pleasant. She tries to forget about what happened back on Homeworld. With her Pearl ... It doesn't make the anger or the misery go away. In fact, it reminds her that despite all of that, Spinel had been there. She had even been through her having a new Pearl, and adapting to her. 

Pink thinks about Spinel's antics, and her playing with her Pebbles, and how she spent every moment attempting to make her smile. 

And she just ... she just can't do it. She looks into those large eyes on that earnest face that she imagines is seeking her approval, her attention, her love ...   
  
And she just can't do that to her. It stirs something in Pink that she can't really name. In retrospect, she might have other words for it somewhere down the line, but at the moment, all she has is this feeling, and a sense of inspiration that she hasn't really had before. 

A smile, a genuine smile of brilliance, forms on Pink's face that somehow makes Spinel's grin widen further, like a pink mirror. Pink leans forward, towards Spinel, and tells her that they are going to play a game. It's a variation of an old game, from a series of pranks, and japes. She doesn't know if it is going to work. A part of her worries that it might fail, and that she will have to abandon Spinel or ... leave her with White Diamond. But she has no choice. This has to be done, because the alternatives are too alien and awful to consider. 

Besides, Pink tells herself as Spinel glows, and shifts, and changes her form, whatever else Spinel is, she definitely is always up for a challenge when it comes to the prospect of play. 

When Pink Diamond warps back to Homeworld, to meet with her Pearl, and confer with the other Diamonds, no one really notices or makes a point of wondering where her Spinel has gone. She stands to attention, and listens to the speeches, and adulation of their Gem subjects with a calm, yet graceful manner.

The game, that she proposed to Spinel, is called "Play Pretend." It has another name too, called "Hide," which isn't a mutually exclusive thing. It's simple enough. Like the Gems in the walls, one is always in plain sight. All one has to do, is pretend to be what everyone else wants you to be, or expects you to be. Sometimes, it got Pink far. Certainly, with good behaviour, it got her her own colony, and an escape from Homeworld. Pink can feel something vibrating excitedly in one of her pockets. If someone sees the head of a Pebble peak out of her from time to time, the other Gems wouldn't say anything. Her Pearl already knows how it is with her Pebbles, and defers to her Diamond. She has a feeling that she and Pearl, this Pearl, will get along fine. 

And her fellow Diamonds either pretend not to see, or in White's case, she doesn't even notice.

Who would truly look at a tiny Pebble after all?

By the time they make it to the moon surveying her new Colony, the pink Pebble with the heart-shaped Gem skips out of Pink Diamond's pockets and transforms back into her real form. Pearl is rather aghast at the sight. She is scared. She wonders what will happen now. If Spinel will cause problems. And what if, she broaches her Diamond, the other Diamonds see her there in their communications.   
  
Spinel tells her Pearl to "lighten up." Pink sees Spinel heckling her Pearl, and almost feels bad about it. But they had talked about their game. "Play Pretend" is just in its first phase. She sees how Spinel took to it, and how she played along with it. The waning interest she felt in their friendship is renewed. No. It is, rather, changed. Spinel has always been flexible, physically, and even mentally she has adapted on many of their pranks and games.   
  
Pink wonders if Spinel will be able to adapt to this new situation. Perhaps, one day, she will reveal to the other Diamonds that Spinel is here. But at that point in time, she hopes to be well-established and have more Colonies to her name. To show them that she can balance work and pleasure. That she is a responsible Diamond. That they do not have power over her.   
  
In the meantime, it becomes just as well that Pink brought Spinel with her to her new Colony. Most of the time, they are in the base, alone and remote and isolated. The jokes and stories between them pass the time. Even Pearl, for all of her cautious nature, gets in on the fun. Pearl starts to have a few ideas of her own. One day, when they are all particularly bored -- though more Pink and Spinel instead of Pearl -- they see the first Gems come out of the ground. Out of the Earth.   
  
Pink Diamond wants to see them. To greet them. She has never truly see fully grown Gems, aside from her Pebbles, freshly made. The prospect excites her. But, at this point, she also knows her freedom -- while a little broader -- is not without its limits. Yellow and Blue make regular communications with her. Spinel still plays "Pretend" by staying out of sight, often making faces at the Diamonds where they can't see her. Blue and Yellow are still cautious. Pink can tell they are concerned about her running this Colony. But she will show them. She will be a better administrator and Diamond than all of them.   
  
Her Gems will love her for more than just her status and being. They will love her for ... her. Spinel and Pearl seem to support this. They say she is amazing. And she will do it. Spinel is excited over Pearl's idea to pose as ... other Gems on Earth. She can continue to "Play Pretend," and go on more adventures. Pearl seems intrigued by this as well.   
  
And when they do this, none of the Amethysts that come from the Kindergarten even question the presence of a Pearl with a Rose Quartz ... and a tiny Pebble with a pink heart-shaped gem. 


	5. Facet II: Discovery

Spinel sits in the Garden as it rots. 

It's a clever game. She has to give Pink that. This variation of "The Statue Game" is the longest she has ever played.   
  
At first, she thought she had displeased her friend. Pink hadn't been playing with her as much these days, even ordering her not to come with her to other places. Her new Pearl was often at her side, instead. Spinel quells the pang of jealousy in her when she thinks about Pearl. The last Pearl hadn't been so bad, though something had happened to her, which Pink didn't really talk about. Instead, Spinel tried to make her laugh and smile like she used to. 

But now, this game. It's actually useful. It's been giving Spinel time to think of new games, new tricks, with which to entertain Pink. 

It was giving her time to think. Certainly, between that and the butterfly that used to flutter around her years ago, it's been helping her quash her own doubts. Pink will be back soon. She will be back, and they will have even more fun than they ever did before, with or without her Pearl. 

And then ... the communication screen blinks on. 

The Diamonds. It had been a while since Spinel had seen them. The portal hovers over the ground as it always has. It isn't a direct communication, but a broadcast. But ... something is different. 

White, Yellow, and Blue have always been serious, or at least they became that way for the most part. To be honest, Spinel didn't think much of them. They were no fun, and always insisting on roles and duty. She saw the way they would affect Pink. It made her try to cheer her up even more. Spinel doesn't like the other Diamonds, though she fears them, and rightfully so. Their power is absolute. But they aren't her Diamond. Her friend. 

And that's when she sees that Pink isn't on the viewing screen with them.

Blue Diamond's face is drawn and haggard. She has been crying. Yellow's is harder than Spinel has ever seen. There is actual anger, and rage in those diamond-shaped eyes that were there before. And White ... White's face is, somehow, more remote. Colder. Emptier. But when her voice speaks, while it sounds as distant as it's always been, there is a brittle tone behind it, fused with another emotion that takes Spinel a while to place until she does.

It is determination.

Where is Pink? Spinel asks herself as the broadcast continues, a sinking feeling in her core forming as her absence weighs on her. Where is Pink? 

There has been a Rebellion on a Gem Colony. Pink Diamond's Colony. A Rose Quartz, of Pink's Court, had turned a large number of Gems against their Diamond. Pink attempted to quell it, and then called her fellow Diamonds for aid. They had almost captured the traitor and a renegade Pearl, but Blue's Sapphire -- who had been involved -- had been compromised and taken by a defective Ruby. A Civil War has been continuing for some time as a result. The Rebellion, called the Crystal Gems, is attempting to establish their own rule on Earth: Pink's Colony. 

But Spinel doesn't give a jot about that. Her eyes widen, her pupils dilate, as she wants to know what has happened to her friend. 

Rose Quartz had infiltrated Pink's defensive forces, and got to her palanquin. She took a sword, forged by the Gem traitors ... 

And Shattered her Diamond.

The Diamonds vow vengeance. They are mobilizing Homeworld and the anger of the Colonies against this treacherous world. But Spinel isn't hearing any of that. She's fallen. Vegetation and mould crumble around her feet as she falls to her knees. It is as though the Diamonds have Shattered her. Pink ...

Her friend.

It doesn't matter to Spinel that Pink left her here, in their Garden, for ages. She now knows why. This had been their game. Pink had ... she had other duties. She was going to come back. She always had. Their game was going to continue. A part of Spinel, even now, wonders if this is some kind of joke, some spectacular prank on Pink's part. If so ... her Diamond or not, it's not funny. It's not funny at all. 

It isn't funny because Pink wouldn't do something like this. She wouldn't make something like this up. And the Diamonds do not joke around. It hits Spinel harder than any kind of sucker punch. Pink is gone. Her Pearl did nothing to help her. Her troops, her Gems ... They did nothing, and her fellow Diamonds let this happen to her. They never liked her. They wanted her to fail. Perhaps this was the excuse they needed. To have her ... have her Shattered so that they could get rid of a liability, an embarrassment to their Court, and expand. 

It doesn't matter that it doesn't make sense to Spinel. It's some kind of cruel joke that she doesn't understand, but the punch line is the same. 

Pink is gone.

She's gone, and the Gems that did it are still on Earth. The Gem that did it, Rose Quartz, is still at large. 

Spinel is sobbing. She is crying and laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of the entire thing. She feels herself changing. She'd been standing here for a while. It's a miracle she hadn't poofed before this point, but now she is retreating into her gem, reforming ... transforming. Grief transmutes into anger, and hatred. Her hair buns scatter into tangled ends, her poofy garments developing edges, her eyes sink deeper, and tear-tracks become black stripes.   
  
Her heart flips upside down. The other side of the mask of comedy.   
  
It doesn't take Spinel long to leave the Garden, and find the items that she is looking for. She needs her props after all. For her last, big production number.   
  
No one even notices her. She got extremely skilled at imitating other Gems, and few lower-class Gems know a lot about Spinels anyway. She gets to the place called Earth, and begins monitoring their communications. It turns out, Rose Quartz has two points on her agenda: to make Earth a free Colony for her Rebel Gems ... and to protect all life on its surface. She holds all life sacred, she tells her Rebels, her Rebels telling each other.   
  
Except for her Diamond's, of course.  
  
Spinel doesn't care about the Homeworld troops fighting the Rebels. She doesn't give a shard about Shattered Gems. All she can think about is that Rose Quartz and how she had betrayed her Diamond. Her friend. And it gets worse ... The news feeds and scripts give Spinel more information. She recognizes Rose Quartz's rogue Pearl. And, suddenly, it all makes sense. There is no way Rose Quartz could have gotten past Pink's defenses on her own. Neither she, nor her Rebels, nor her Deviant Fusions could have gotten far undetected.   
  
But Pink's Pearl, always hovering nearby unless given specific orders not to ... Was it jealousy that made Pearl betray her Diamond? Was it something on Earth that infected her, with the others that grew here? Did Pearl simply love her Rose Quartz more than the Diamond with which she was pledged?   
  
It doesn't matter to Spinel. All that matters is that she makes them pay. She makes them all pay. Because, now, it's Comedy Hour. And the joke is ultimately on them.   
  
It takes everyone aback seeing her launch into the fray, her acrobatics and rubbery limbs making her hard to hit, harder to even see until it is too late. The Rejuvenator slashes into Gems of all kinds, and reverts them all the way to their default settings. Robbing them of their independence. Of their rebellious spirit. Of their need for freedom. But they are just appetizers for Spinel's Day Out. She's not going to use this on that traitorous Pearl that took her best friend away. She won't utilize it on the Rose Quartz that was made to exist for her. While she fights, while she unleashes her mayhem in sneaky little attacks, making the Rebels think she is some kind of new super-weapon the Authority has on hand, she's had the Injector penetrate the Earth. She is just the distraction. Maybe they will find the Injector and realize why all organic life is dying a horrible, withering death. Plants, animals ... and those strange human creatures that Rose Quartz loves so much, that she murdered her friend over ... They will all die first.   
  
If not, Spinel knows the Rebels will come on the Injector first. The Homeworld Gems won't interfere. They were going to kill all life on this planet anyway. But Rose Quartz and her Pearl will come. Them, and their remaining Crystal Gems.   
  
And Spinel will take great pleasure in destroying them all.   
  
For her best friend.   
  



	6. Facet II: Poof

Spinel faces Rose Quartz. At last.

She knew she wouldn't able to resist stopping her Injector. It's part of her agenda, after all, in starting this entire Rebellion. Spinel looks into the other Gem's eyes. Somehow, there is a light of ... surprise there. As though, out of everyone in this battlefield that's become the entire planet, the last thing the leader of the Crystal Gems expected to see was a Spinel: a Spinel that can fight, of all things. 

At the same time, there is another emotion in Rose Quartz's gaze that almost, but not quite, takes Spinel aback. It's not the fierceness of battle, or a zeal for her cause. It's not fanaticism, or a murderous look like one would expect from someone who Shattered their own Diamond. Spinel has never seen this Rose Quartz before, had seen that treacherous Pearl at her friend's side far more often, but she seems somehow ... familiar. But the feeling in her eyes, that even Spinel can see, fused with clear surprise that her opponent is something like her, a glorified toy, is sadness. Not a mild sorrow either, but something deeper, something gutting, and visceral. It almost looks like a realization. 

Spinel wonders if a Fusion between shock and grief would create clarity. Maybe it's because of the Rebel leader's friends that she's already poofed. It hadn't taken much to trick the Homeworld forces into thinking that she was one of these Rebels. Right now, they were engaged with the bulk of the Crystal Gem forces, inadvertently helping Spinel deal with Rose Quartz on her own terms. It is always good to get an audience involved in entertaining itself, in participating in the spectacle. Besides dividing and conquering, the best magic tricks are those with a distraction from the real trick. 

And Spinel is going to complete her final act by making Rose Quartz disappear.

Perhaps the Rebel leader, in her white dress, her sword and shield -- all pink ... all_ Pink_'s -- tries to talk her down, as she had at the beginning of this confrontation. The Garnet Fusion hadn't seen her coming. Her Rejuvenator scythe had cut through her, and both the Ruby and Sapphire she'd been made of had fallen to the ground. Pearl hadn't lasted much longer, though with her Bismuth-forged spear she'd put up a considerable fight. Spinel laughed at watching the look on Rose Quartz's face when she bisected her, her constant companion.   
  
Her friend won't even remember her now.   
  
Spinel had thought of drawing out Pearl's pain, and suffering. Of Shattering her bit by bit. But they were all going to Fuse. She had seen this coming, and luckily she had been fast enough to cleave through all of them. All of them, except for Rose Quartz.

It'd been fortunate, she admits to herself. The Sapphire could have seen her coming, and every one of her attacks. But she knew enough from her time with Pink Diamond how Sapphires worked. They need data. They need to have something concrete and specific to work with when making their predictions, and using their Future Vision. But Spinel is anything but predictable, or inflexible. Maybe if Sapphire had had time, she could have -- with her Ruby companion -- countered her. But Spinel didn't give them, or their Fusion, the chance.   
  
Pearl, she had access to a great deal of storage and memory. She had a few weapons inside her, and had become agile enough and skilled enough to use them. Spinel wonders if Pink Diamond taught her those tricks, tricks _she'd_ taught Pink Diamond, when they were alone together on the Moon base surveying the colony and the domain that the Pearl would inevitably betray. That thought infuriated her so much that she eviscerated the Pearl with neither mercy nor pity, her projected form dissipated, her memories all gone. Part of it had been expediency, while the rest ... that had been taking back what was stolen from her: her techniques passed to her, programmed by the Diamond she helped Shatter, the time she spent with her, the memories she made when taking Pink away from her. Homeworld could do what they wanted with the Gems after this.   
  
It is just her and Rose Quartz now.  
  
The one who Shattered her friend. The one who left her in the Garden to rot for thousands of years, wondering where her friend would find her again.  
  
Spinel faces the person who took her_ everything_ away from her. She thinks there is no way Rose Quartz can take anymore.   
  
Rose Quartz manages to counter every one of her movements, of her blows. She knows what the scythe is too. There is always a shield blocking it, especially the gem on her belly. Spinel feels the fury building inside her as this murderer continues to anticipate all of her attacks, with that same expression of ... what? Pity? Remorse? Whatever it is, it infuriates her further. Rose Quartz, for her part, simply fights defensively, not trying to land a hit, but keeping herself distant from her, even against limbs that can stretch out across wide spaces.  
  
Spinel tells Rose Quartz to fight her. She orders her to stop running and evading her. She screams at her. She tells her she is going to destroy all organic life on this planet. She is going to kill all of her pet humans. She has reset all the memories of her closest friends. She led the rest of her troops into an ambush by the Authority. She is going to lose everything. She's going to lose everything because of what she took from her. She took more than her Diamond away from her, more than what Pink's own forces want to avenge.   
  
Rose Quartz destroyed her best friend. A friend she waited aeons to see again. And she is going to make her pay for all of it.   
  
That's when Rose Quartz stops fighting.   
  
She leaps away from Spinel and makes eye contact with her. That look again. The one that Spinel can't bear to see. It makes her want to smash the Gem in the face until she is nothing but glittery rubble.   
  
And then, she does something. Something incredibly audacious.   
  
Rose Quartz begins to change. She glows with pink light and flows into something larger, a little more angular. Her gem changes shape. It turns to face Spinel. Spinel watches this happen. She doesn't move. It is a trick. She knows it has to be. But then the long magenta tresses of Rose Quartz disappear into a large cotton-candy bush of hair. Diamond pupils regard Spinel.   
  
Pink Diamond looks back at her.  
  
At first, Spinel thinks this is the trick she thought it was. She tries to feel angry. Furious. This traitor is trying to use her friend's shape to distract her. But she speaks, and her voice is the same. And then, Spinel realizes she has been tricked in an entirely different way.   
  
It's like their old "Play Pretend" games, but so much larger. So much more grandiose.   
  
Spinel asks her how she did it. Pink, for her part, looks tired. It looks as though being in her real form hurts her. It hurts her in a way that Spinel can't even understand. She told her that she swallowed some crushed minerals, and had Pearl stab her with her sword. She explains how she wanted the Earth to be a free place for Gems of all kinds. She wanted to save the life on this planet from being terraformed. She told her that she learned a lot being here. The words hit Spinel more than anything she had as Rose Quartz in asking her to join her cause, and liberate herself from Homeworld's tyranny.   
  
She knows what this is. Pink had always wanted to get away from the other Diamonds. She had never fit in with them. She had never been happy there. And Spinel tried to make her happy. And she failed. She left her. She left her in the Garden for the Colony. She left her for these friends whom she poofed with the Rejuvenator. For the creatures of this Colony.   
  
And she had no intention of coming back for her.   
  
Spinel feels more rage enter her core than she ever had, even when she thought Pink had been destroyed. She told her to stand there for aeons, and she left her. She doesn't hear anything else that Pink tells her. Whether it's that she can join her now, or that she doesn't have to do this, none of it matters. Her friend, her only friend, has betrayed her. Betrayed her completely and utterly. And she wants to make her pay.   
  
Pink orders her to stop. And, once, a Diamond's offhand order would have froze her in her tracks. And it did. It made her stand in mould and rot for thousands of years. But she defied it. She broke through when she heard her friend had been murdered by someone she trusted. When her heart broke.   
  
Rage fills her as she charges forward. But she doesn't feel the Rejuvenator leave her hand as Pink knocks it, almost gently, away. She almost doesn't feel it when the point taps on her neck.   
  
And as Spinel's mind begins to dissipate, as she knows she will be in a bubble like all of those Rose Quartzes in the Zoo, she sees Pink's face. She thinks she hears her former friend's apology, maybe even sees the regret on her face, before she becomes someone else again. 


	7. Facet II: Shattered

The charade is over. 

Spinel faces Rose Quartz ... Pink Diamond down. She doesn't hear anything the other has to say. Even the order she made, to make her stop, to ask her to listen, falls on deaf ears. She didn't stand still for millennia, playing a game she was never going to win, becoming the butt of a joke and an undelivered punchline, just to obey a Diamond who had been Shattered, who didn't exist anymore, who wasn't her friend anymore.

Who had never been her friend to begin with.

One part of her mind knows this is pointless. Pink is a Diamond. She is inherently more powerful than she will ever be. She could end this spar, if one were inclined to be generous to call it that, in moments. Pink might be the smallest of the Diamonds, she might have less resources than the others, but she has infinitely more power than any other Gem besides them. The fact that she seemed gentle, and so ... kind back in the day didn't stop her from wielding Bismuth-forged weapons, and creating that shield. It is much smoother, more ornate, than the geometric patterns she summoned from inside her back in the day. Pink always liked pretty things, even primitive, organic-inspired designs like those from other worlds. 

This is still a game to her. She thinks that Spinel has no chance. Spinel cackles bitterly. Just like Pink to play games with everyone else. This whole mess, this whole war, is her doing. Her responsibility. Her fault. She always knew that Pink liked to play tricks on people, to allow them to think one thing of her, while she was really another. Back then, it had been an in-game between her and Pink, the things they got away with right in plain sight, or at the corners of prying eyes. Sometimes, they even played war games with each other, with figurines, or the Pebbles that Pink always liked to keep company. They even managed to get her first Pearl in on the fun, though she was never as good at strategy as they were, for all of her analytical resources. 

But this ... Spinel can almost admire this entire Gem War, using Gems as playing pieces, with poofing and Shattering on the line, if she hadn't been just another pawn in the scope of the thing. No. It is worse than that.

Spinel had never been a player, or a piece, on Pink's board at all. Just a sacrifice so that this game could happen at all.

No. Spinel knows she only has one chance. She doesn't know why she's doing this anymore. She doesn't really know what she has to gain now that she knows the truth. But the fury of all those wasted years ... waiting ... waiting for someone who couldn't have given less of a shard about her, is speaking and acting for her now. It thrums through her upside down heart-shaped gem.   
  
She wants Pink to pay.

So, when she swings at the fallen gems of Pink's new ... friends, slamming the Rejuvenator hard enough, with enough force and momentum, to permanently destroy them, she knows she has her.

Pink leaps in the way of the scythe, her shield surrounding her.  
  
But it was a feint.   
  
Spinel knew she would be distracted by her beloved Pearl, and Fusion partners' poofing, by their discarded gems. She didn't see her telegraph the movement of her own body, twisting the hoses and elasticity of her form, to unwind it from where she has twisted it on herself like the contortionist entertainments she used to provide her Diamond, to spin around ...  
  
The butt end of the scythe hits the shield hard enough to burst it like the bubble that it is. And the blade swings around again ...  
  
And hits Pink in the side of the neck.  
  
Spinel watches Pink's mouth open. Her eyes grow slack. Her head actually is removed from her projected body, as it crumples to the ground, then the entirety of her remnants and her gem glow with the brightness of her colour ... as she dissolves.   
  
It's over.  
  
Spinel falls to her knees, the Rejuvenator tumbling out of fingers that feel even more over-sized than usual. She doesn't care, now, that the Injector has finished delivering its poisonous playload into the planet. She doesn't hear, or register, the sounds of battle dying out around her. She doesn't even give a jot about the gems of Pink's ... new friends littering the ground, still, and vulnerable.  
  
What she looks at is Pink's gem, sitting in the dust, as purple-magenta veins of energy pulsate, wither, and crumble the earth around them. She doesn't know why she does it. Instead, she reaches out and takes the gem from the ground. 

And then, it rises out her hands. She should have expected a Diamond not to stay poofed for too long, despite everything. She watches as Pink Diamond reforms around her gem. Spinel tenses, waiting for the combat to continue. Pink Diamond opens her eyes, straightening her body out. She looks around, left and right. She looks ... confused. Then, she finally seems to notice Spinel. Pink asks her where they are.   
  
Then she asks Spinel if she knows her.  
  
It doesn't completely register to Spinel, until that moment, that she had hit Pink Diamond with the Rejuvenator. The Diamond looks at her with clear eyes, devoid of sadness, or exhaustion, or frustration, or fear. There is just the light of curiosity in those diamond-shaped pupils. She is even smiling. It occurs to Spinel, at this point, that she is the first Gem that Pink Diamond has seen after her mind has been reset. 

Spinel also realizes that Pink's memories and experiences have all been erased. If Pink hadn't been successful in purging Spinel from her mind before, Spinel had definitely helped her forgetting about her now.   
  
And then, the Homeworld forces find them.  
  
Led by a furious Jasper, and a one-eyed Ruby -- Pink's horrified subjects and soldiers -- they leave Earth under guard, the planet's organic life all but destroyed now. Rose Quartz never returns to the Rebellion. Her inner circle is gone as well. The Crystal Gems are defeated, rounded up, or Shattered by Homeworld. The Rebellion is over. Pink Diamond is returned to the Authority, with her reset Pearl to guide her, alongside Blue Diamond. Pink is a regular fixture at Blue Diamond's Court now, or so Spinel has heard. The very Diamonds she wanted to prove herself to, the ones she wanted to escape, are the same that try to get her to remember who she used to be, or at least Blue is. Yellow, and particularly White most likely want to ... re-educate her, to make her the Diamond they wanted her to be.   
  
And it had all been thanks to Spinel.  
  
But Spinel dared to attack a Diamond. Worse, Spinel knew the truth about what happened on Earth, about the cause of the Rebellion, and Pink's role in it. If the Sapphires in the Courts hadn't discerned it, in private audience with the Diamonds, the Agates trusted with Spinel's ... care, got the rest of the information out of her. It wasn't as though Spinel really fought. All the anger, and fight in her had drained away after robbing her Diamond of everything she used to be. Pink Diamond had taken away Spinel's life.  
  
And Spinel had taken hers.

But Spinel feels no pleasure in it. She feels hollow. And empty inside. It's as though White Diamond has taken possession of her already. But White Diamond won't do that. It is a public event. Homeworld believes that Spinel turned traitor and joined Rose Quartz's Rebellion, that she conspired and got her into Pink Diamond's presence to abduct her, and falsify her Shattering. No one asks about the Injector. No one cares. The trial is just a formality before the real event. The real circus.   
  
Spinel sees Pink Diamond watching from her throne as the Authority accuses her of attacking a Diamond, and resetting her memories with a Rejuvenator. No one asks what happened to Spinel all those millennia. No one asks any questions beyond what the Agates had. And Spinel doesn't care. All she sees is Pink, and her curious, puzzled expression at her in the front of the Diamonds of the Great Diamond Authority, and their assemblage.   
  
Spinel, for her part, doesn't say anything as the sentence is carried out: as the tool is brought down on her gem. She feels nothing, as she knows she is about to experience, as she looks on at the person who used to be her friend ... and looks forward to the pain finally being over. 


	8. Facet II: Alone

It had all been a blur to Spinel.

Of course, everything is practically a blur to Spinel, especially since those thousands of years where she did nothing but remain still. Spinel has always been a Gem of action, of movement, of eternal performance. 

Combat is no different. She sang and danced through that Sapphire-Ruby Fusion, moving circles around the renegade Pearl ... and, in the end, she used the hypocritical compassion of the person she thought was her friend to defeat her. She had a greater performance, partially choreographed, but mostly improvised to allow both the Homeworld and Crystal Gems the opportunity to distract each other as she sought her grand finale. But it's over now, and there is going to be no overture, or punchline. 

The Rebels find them first. 

Spinel is actually tired. Pink, not Rose Quartz ... Pink and her inner circle gave her a run for her money. And she accomplished whatever she was planning to do. Or did she? Spinel doesn't remember anymore. The Rebels are furious. Her Injector is destroying all life on the Earth, and the more they interfere with it, the more it pumps the poison into it. It is coloured pink. Just like their leader. Spinel thinks to herself, after they stab into her, as she is poofed and bubbled, as she is revived in a vast underground chamber questioned by countless Rebels, each more desperate than the last, before they hit her, and place her back into a bubble, that Pink Diamond is the worst thing that ever happened to this planet. 

She brought the Colony here. She hollowed out the mountains and earth to make these seditious Rebels, and the fanatic soldiers fighting them. Then she consorted with life, and humans. She took them into this conflict. She tricked them all into it. 

Then, it got worse for the Rebels.

Spinel can't lie. She laughs. She finds it hilarious. They found the gems of the Pearl, the Sapphire, the Ruby ... and _her_. They don't remember much beyond default settings thanks to the Rejuvenator, but everyone saw Rose Quartz's gem ... the shape of it. And when she returned, when she reformed ... 

Some of the Rebels blame her, of course. They say she tricked them. That this is a copy. But they aren't sure. Pink Diamond is fairly convincing, even without her memories. Some of their number want to take Pink out and present her to the Homeworld armies, to her soldiers, and tell them she had been Rose Quartz the entire time. To end the war and turn on Homeworld. They have always, deep down, wanted and needed a Diamond. Spinel understands this. She knows this need all too well.   
  
But the others ... they are furious. They know they've been tricked. Yet, as Spinel gleefully ... even spitefully told them, they had all been tricked long before she ever arrived. Some want to make an example of the Diamond that manipulated and betrayed them. Others want to help her restore her memory, hers and the Pearl that they realize must have been hers. Even the Sapphire and Ruby get attention, especially from the other perpetual Fusions. They want answers.   
  
Yet others want action. Again, Spinel can understand that. Especially the Bismuth. Bismuth is raging. Bismuth feels the most betrayed by the leadership of the supposed Rose Quartz. She wants a reckoning. She would like the truth. Homeworld only knows how many times Bismuth tried to beat it out of Spinel. But she will settle for results. Bismuth has already threatened her a few times, and lately she has been using a miniature drill: black coated with a pink star. The so-called Breaking Point. She wants to mass manufacture them. Homeworld soldiers had been Shattering Gems, that much even Spinel knew from her own observations. Now Bismuth wants to follow suit. Other Gems agree with her, while others disagree vehemently.   
  
Bismuth wants to Shatter Pink Diamond badly, when she isn't going on about doing it to Spinel. It's strange to Spinel, how the other Crystal Gems aren't all behind Bismuth. You'd think it would be a no-brainer: to destroy the being that played with them all, more than she had ever played with Spinel, and use whatever tactics to secure their home. But others still ... especially the Fusions, they consider Shattering morally wrong. Horrific. It'd make them no different from the beings they fought against. They actually stand behind what they call the idea of Rose Quartz. Of love and acceptance. Of compassion. Of not leaving anyone behind. Of giving others a chance.   
  
Spinel can't help it. She laughs at them. She laughs at the memory of Rose Quartz. At the figure of this peaceful and loving leader who took in all rejects and misfits, and left her friend behind to rot on a planet under her command forever. They had absolutely no idea who they had served, who they had proclaimed their ally. 

The Gem that is the Rebels fractures under the truth more effectively than any drillbit, or Homeworld soldier ever could. 

Spinel isn't sure why she isn't Shattered herself. She figures, in another timeline, seen by a Sapphire, that the Bismuth did break her, and it had finally been over. Even Pink, bright and oblivious, attended by her mind-wiped Pearl, doesn't know. There is talk about using her as a hostage, or to execute her again, or privately.   
  
But there isn't time.   
  
The Crystal Gems are on the defensive. They are under attack.   
  
They take Pink up with them, they and her other friends. Bismuth has taken something of a leadership position. She is playing Diamond now. Or Diamond-Breaker. The Breaking Point is manufactured, and copied. Several contingents of Rebels carry them into what they are calling "the Final Battle." They still argue with each other, not agreeing with each other. But battle carries them upwards.   
  
Spinel doesn't know if they take Pink Diamond up to barter with, or kill. They hit her before that. Bubble her away.   
  
Only a moment seems to pass.   
  
There is a rumbling and Spinel falls to the ground hard, from a considerable height. Then, she sees a faint bright, brilliant white light from a hole in the distance of the cave's ceiling. Then, there is silence.   
  
No one is around when she comes to. It takes her a while to realize what's happened.   
  
She could have told them they had no chance against Homeworld, with or without the Breaking Point. The Diamonds are all-powerful. Especially when they are angry.   
  
It takes Spinel some time, but she realizes she is in a Temple. Why the great democratic Rose Quartz dwelt in a Temple dedicated to, pretty much, herself and her Fusions is beyond her. Her former friend seemed to still possess that egotism, to the very end. Now, it's mostly ruins ... along with all life around it.   
  
Between her own Injector, and whatever Light had been unleashed, there is nothing but wastes around the remains of the Temple, and what she can see of the world. The Homeworld forces are gone. The Crystal Gems don't seem to exist anymore. Perhaps Pink was caught in the blast, or destroyed by the people she claimed to protect. Or maybe Homeworld carried her back as a captive. Spinel doesn't know. She feels empty enough almost not to care.   
  
She eventually locates her Rejuvenator, though it's a bit worse for wear. The Bismuth knew what it was. It had been under lock and key. It took ages for her to figure out how to access the Forge.   
  
It had been ... complicated.   
  
This world wasn't as desolate as it seemed. Monsters hunted in it. Screeching things from the skies. Giant creatures borrowing from the ground. Behemoths bellowing and looking for a fight. In the dark atmosphere of this dying world, it resembles nothing short of a nightmare. It took some time for Spinel to realize that they had gems. But they are blotched, spotted pieces of gemstone. Almost as mouldy as her feet had been in the Garden. Corrupt.   
  
She figures out, as she fights them, that the Gems on this world didn't die in the blast. They were mutated. Twisted. Their minds broken. They are little more than beings driven by hunger, rage, and hatred. Spinel can relate. At first, she just hunts them to survive: to destroy them before they obliterate her. It helps that they are mostly instinctual, and their higher cognitive functions are gone. Then, she comes after them for sport ... for amusement. She easily evades them, or hides. She makes traps for them. Sometimes she keeps them in cages in the caverns with makeshift iron, probably from the humans that used to live on the planet. It helps with the boredom. It helps keep away the other thoughts.   
  
Spinel never really touches them, however. She doesn't want to Fuse them with them. They are corrupt, disgusting things. Even the Rejuvenator won't repair the damage to their gems. There is no difference between them being reset. Their cores are too compromised to be wiped. There is a group of centipede-like monstrosities, with acid-saliva, that are a little better. Spinel realizes there are stores of ... sustenance. Food? Some were hidden in the ground in cold stone containers by the humans. After destroying some of the creatures, they come after her when she is actually ingesting some of the substances. She has to admit ... it's pretty good. She never thought of really eating before. It's a novel sensation. She'd seen the animals and humans do it. Now, that they are gone, she kind of understands what they were getting out of it. It's what some of them did at the Zoo when she infiltrated it on that quest that seemed just like yesterday, and yet so long ago.   
  
She somehow domesticates the centipedes through their leader. Spinel thinks they were Nephrites, and possibly Pink's from the remnants of their ship where they nest. She rides the leader sometimes for a lark. She has to do something to keep the dank atmosphere of this dead world from depressing her. She'd found the titanic golem, the creature that once been the Bismuth long before this, and poofed her: taking her gem, and realizing she needed it to activate the door on the Forge. Certainly, the Mirror she had found, with the broken gem of a Lapis, helped her find exactly what she was looking for. It'd taken a lot of force and boulder traps to bring the parody of the Bismuth down. Spinel actually appreciates having the scythe back, for all it did for her.   
  
Sometimes, when she journeys, alone or on her mounts she sees outlines of what life used to be on this world ... and almost regrets destroying it. In retrospect, it wasn't Earth's fault that Pink came to it, that she lied to its inhabitants -- native and grown. The boredom makes her experience this feeling even more. Then, eventually, she finds the other Injectors: the ones from Homeworld. The ones that made the grown Gems, and almost turned this world into a Colony before Pink ended that too.   
  
Spinel comes to the Kindergarten. There had been two of them. One is just populated with Corrupted Gems, but this one seems to have fewer. She talks to the centipedes a lot. She sings to them. She even sings to the Mirror, that creates images to go along with her songs. It amuses Spinel. Sometimes, she thinks that if she had such a Mirror, she might have stayed in the Garden or been distracted from that fateful message that took her here. Sometimes, she entertains the idea that the Mirror has a Gem in it. Both of them would be trapped by their own circumstances.   
  
By the time the small shape stumbles towards her, from one of the alcoves, she almost strikes it down.   
  
But then ... she sees what it is. A small, purple form looks up at her. Small, white hair covers her head. Her joints are clear and geometric. Spinel, seeing what this is, actually laughs again. Out of all the Amethysts made by Pink, this runt -- this short, defective Gem -- is the only uncorrupted survivor. Spinel actually doesn't know what to do with this Amethyst, wondering what her former friend would have done when ... the Amethyst begins to repeat what she murmurs to herself. And then she starts walking the way she walks. Then she elongates her limbs like she does. The Amethyst is a copy-cat. And she seems to like changing her shape.   
  
There is an open, earnest look in this Amethyst's eyes that makes Spinel almost ... remember something. Like she had seen this before. But not on her end. But Spinel is bored, and this Amethyst, along with the Mirror and its Lapis Gem, are better company than most.   
  
Time is a blur. They go from place to place. Amethyst eats a lot of what they can still find. They ride the Nephrite centipedes. Spinel trains Amethyst to make jokes and do skits. Spinel has always been the sidekick in her last friendship. Now, Amethyst is _her_ sidekick. The Mirror tells them stories through pictures. They explore the Temple ruins, and the other structures left from the Great Diamond Authority's relatively short dominion on this world. Sometimes, they even explore the things the humans left behind too. Spinel sees some of the calcified remains embracing each other. It makes her feel things that she doesn't want to feel, and they move on.  
  
Eventually, they all get tired of this world. Amethyst, Spinel, and the Mirror can only entertain each other for so long. The Nephrites too, eat more than their fill, and they have to bubble them at times when they get out of hand with their acid-saliva, though they are better at controlling themselves now. It's even worse when Spinel tells Amethyst of other worlds, and she can't stop saying that she "wants off this rock." It amuses her. For a time, they try to fix the Nephrites' ship, but it never takes. Spinel is an entertainer at heart, that just learned the frequency of her Injector with the horn she could form from her limbs. Amethyst only copies. The Mirror is too cryptic, and probably never operated a ship before. The Nephrites are too mindless.   
  
Instead, one day Spinel takes a chance ... and takes the Lapis out of the Mirror. Water forms under her and Amethyst and the surprised and skittish Nephrite centipedes. It forms a latticework. A pattern. And then, she is formed. The Lapis Lazuli can't really see. Her eyes are blank. Her features are confused. But her powers are not. There is still water in this world. She draws on it, creating copies of themselves, making the tides rise ...   
  
Spinel thinks to herself that, once, Pink Diamond might been able to repair the crack in her gem. She tries to make a tide of water, to have them rise to the moon, but it isn't enough. She even tries to form wings, but they splatter into useless water. She can't shape them, or maintain the form she needs. So they go around, looking for something else.  
  
They've found the Warp Pads ages ago, allowing them to investigate many places in the world that were considered inaccessible. But eventually, they find one that leads them to the Moon. To Pink's moon base.   
  
It's sterile, and quiet. But cleaner. As Amethyst and the broken Lapis examine the place, Spinel realizes that eventually Homeworld will come back here. They had wiped away the Crystal Gems, and organic life won't be an issue. They will come back for the Colony to expand the Great Diamond Authority. They will send someone to investigate this world.   
  
Eventually, as ages pass, and she and Amethyst run out of the rations that Pink left behind in her base which she had planned to sample and the same old jokes and routines grow stale, they see some ... constructs materialize down on the Earth, near what they identify as the Galaxy Warp. Spinel knows that this is their ticket out. Where they will go is another story. All three of them would be destroyed by Homeworld for their imperfections alone.   
  
Still, Spinel knows a few places where no one will ask questions. There are many worlds in the galaxy, she and Lapis tell Amethyst. Many opportunities for trouble. Her Injector can't fly anymore, having used the last of its energy for her final task. But when she sees the Peridot materialize, with her artificial limbs, Spinel knows they have a chance now. She looks down at the world she has rendered into dust, and the perfect site of a new Colony, and the destruction of her former friend's dream. She feels nothing now. Not guilt. Not satisfaction.   
  
Just numbness. And the need to not have to see it anymore.   
  
Lapis and Amethyst laugh at her jokes. They go along with her pranks. The Nephrites eat their food and swirl around into patterns for everyone's amusement. She still has the Rejuvenator if the Peridot doesn't want to play along. It's fine now. As fine as the pain of everything will ever let it be. For the first time, in a long while, Spinel truly accepts the fact that, whatever happens next, whatever misadventures occur with her faithful sidekick, her trusty mounts, and their powerful aquatic guide, she won't ever have to be alone again. 


	9. Facet III: Pebbles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added a little more to this. In addition to the events in this timeline, Spinel gets something made for her that is ... really appropriate.

Spinel looks up at her Diamond expectantly. 

She looks forward to their new adventure to another world, a Colony ruled by her friend. It's what she's been looking forward to for ages now. Maybe it's just what they need. Spinel's noticed just how distracted Pink's been lately, this past while. It started with the loss of her first Pearl, and even continues through her new one. They still play, but not as often. Sometimes, Spinel notices Pink draw away more. The fear of displeasing her, of losing her affection, it stabs at her. So she tries to smile more, tries to provide more antics. 

Finally, Pink kneels down. She looks Spinel in the eye. She even boops her on the nose like she always used to do. Some ease enters Spinel's core at the familiar display of affection. Her doubts are soothed away. 

Pink tells her to wait here. She has something important for her to do.  
  
Spinel watches as Pink walks towards the Warp Pad, and teleports away into glittering lights. A day passes. Then two. She watches a butterfly flutter past her face. She waits. Sometimes she does somersaults, or cartwheels. Nothing in Pink's orders say she couldn't do it. She needs something to pass the time. 

It also helps her deal with the rising anxiety. The fear. Where did her friend go? Does she still want to play together? Spinel knows she is made to entertain Pink. What will she do if she's displeased Pink somehow? If Pink doesn't want her to play anymore.  
  
And then, by the next day, Pink returns.

She runs up to her, holding her hands, dancing around. Pink chuckles, a fine crystalline tittering. Spinel can't even begin to describe how much she's missed that tickling sound of her laughter. Relief fills her just as she notices .... there is something different about her Diamond.  
  
Since when did Pink look bulkier at the edges, and adopt the colour grey?

But then Pink smiles as the small shapes on her look down, revealing their smoothed shapes, their oblong heads, their waving hands. And Spinel recognizes the Pebbles. Pink's toys. Her creations. Her other small friends. 

Pink explains to her, as the Pebbles roam around the Garden, climbing, dancing, gibbering, forming their limbs into tools, that she has much to prepare for at the Colony. She tells Spinel that she is going to be busy for a while, that running a Colony is going to take more responsibility and attention than she thought. As a result, her Pebbles would have been left alone at the Palace, in her Room. And she can't take them with her. Pink needs someone to take care of them. Someone she can trust. 

More than that, however, Pink stresses one fact. The Pebbles need someone to play with.   
  
That's become Spinel's job. There is a brief hesitation in Pink's eyes, something that Spinel wonders if the Diamond realizes she can see. She promises Spinel that she will come back for her, and the Pebbles, when she can. Spinel is entrusted with an important task. She can't refuse her friend. The Pebbles just look too ... too cute to say anything else. And she can never say no to her Diamond. 

There is an ache inside of Spinel, that she tries to ignore. Pink Diamond's face screws up a bit. Then, she leans forward and hugs Spinel. She holds her against herself. Spinel can feel the hard surface of her chest against her face, but her arms and her grasp around her wiry form is gentle. Spinel finds herself leaning into the hug, burrowing her face into Pink Diamond's armour, into her body. She still smells of the flowers that she grows here. She wonders if she will grow them on her new Colony, that she hopes to see someday.   
  
Then, Pink Diamond thanks her. She boops her on the nose again. And Spinel just watches, the Pebbles beside her, as the Diamond walks towards the Warp Pad and dematerializes once again.   
  
The Pebbles don't leave Spinel alone. And they are never idle either. They make little streams into the plants and flowers, to keep them hydrated. Some of them steal seeds. They have this annoying habit, some of them, of finding prickles and burrs and placing them into the buns of Spinel's hair, the little brats. Spinel chases them down a lot, shouting at them, giving them a menacing fist in their direction with her gloves. But they also do other things. They sing and dance, in their little voices that barely make intelligible words. And then, they go to the trees and bushes. They start to make little houses for themselves. Spinel finds herself, as the days, months, and years go by finding materials and new things in the Garden to help them build. She draws designs in the dirt, like the forts and houses she and Pink would dream up, and the Pebbles replicate a lot of them in miniature.   
  
It doesn't stop her from missing her friend, but the Pebbles never seem to leave her be to think about it for too long. After a while, they communicate with each other through drawings in the soil and the dust of the Garden. Sometimes, Spinel sketches out diamond shapes with her finger on the ground, over and again. The Pebbles do the same. It's as though they all miss her. And she knows that they do. 

Time passes. The Pebbles have woven tree branches and bushes into the frame of a small fortress for Spinel. She has chosen the colours, which the Pebbles have somehow woven from flowers and vines into drapery, and banners. They've made glyphs of Spinel, and Pink Diamond, and themselves dancing together in circles. Spinel doesn't a place to stay, but she likes the pavilion they've made for them all. More than that, she likes the giant stage they've made for her on the roof of this strange tree-house fortress.  
  
But even though they maintain the broadcast portal, and the Warp Pad, they don't go back to Homeworld, or anywhere else. Spinel doesn't really like the other Diamonds, and the Pebbles seem to be the same.   
  
Even so, she keeps hoping for news. She keeps hoping to see Pink again. Maybe, now, that everything is underway and time has passed, they will all be invited to her Colony, and be able to have a party on her Moon Base.   
  
Then, there's a broadcast.  
  
A being, standing on Homeworld, tells everyone in a general sense what happened these past six thousand years. The Colony. The Gem War. Rose Quartz. Pink Diamond. Her life on Earth. Her final transformation. Her embrace of a species called humankind. The end of the War. Peace in the Great Diamond Authority. This new being having been created by Pink, from Spinel's understanding, to do everything she thought she could not.   
  
It hurts.   
  
Spinel cries. She runs up to the broadcast as it dissipates, and she bawls. Pink left her. She left her, and she never came back. She knew, thought. She knows that, deep down, Pink was never coming back. Spinel feels anger, and sadness. And terrible grief. Tears course down her face at the friend she's lost, who left her here, who didn't take her with her. They had grown apart. She didn't want to believe it, then, but the fact stands out at her now.   
  
She feels shapes gather around her. Something soft flows around her, settling on her shoulders as she sobs into the dirt. She realizes, from the fragrance, that it is a blanket woven from roses, and lilacs. She looks around and sees the Pebbles. They have gathered all around her. She knows all of their names by now. Noggin. Chesto. Patch. Footy. Brainy. Nosey. Fisto. And so many others. They are sad. They climb on her shoulders, and her lap. They hold her. They are also crying. A part of Spinel wants to feel grateful for them, for their warmth for ... this. Another part is still angry at Pink, as though somehow_ this_ is supposed to make up for her abandonment, this consolation prize. But Spinel feels shame at that thought. The Pebbles were Pink's creations, her pets, her ... practically her children. And she trusted Spinel with their well being. She imagines them, being left on Homeworld, hiding in their little compartments in fear as the War raged, and the Diamonds need for perfection in the Authority only became more severe.   
  
And she is glad she is here for them. She's glad they are here for her.   
  
It takes a while for Spinel to come to a decision. The Warp Pad still works. They can leave anytime they want. She talks with them about it. They consider it as she juggles the balls they've created for her, made of polished rock and stone, on her giant stage. Spinel wants to know more about humans. She gradually learns about the Zoo the Diamonds made for Pink and their samples of humans. It's a start. Then, when she feels comfortable enough she can go to Earth. The being that communicated Pink's fate is her child too. Spinel can see the human misses Pink, and while ..._ he_, strange these biological and social constructions between organic beings, is made of Pink and has her gem, he has never really known her.   
  
But Spinel and her Pebbles have time. They explore the galaxy, going onto worlds where the Great Diamond Authority has relaxed its presence. They have all the freedom they can want. And they have time. Eventually, as they do leave the Garden, it remains behind, beautiful and verdant, left better for them having been in it. Somehow, even with the loss of its creator, it is more colourful than it has even been.   
  
Exeunt Stage Universe.


	10. Facet III: Zoo

Spinel waits in the Garden. The butterfly wavers past her head sometimes, once or twice, or three times. It moves in countless instances, in different patterns until it never comes again. And still, no one and nothing appears on the Warp Pad. There is no communication of any kind. Nothing.

And then, one day, the Warp Pad activates.

Spinel's core tenses at the sight. Her feet move slowly, ripping through the old vines and mould of the dead Garden. Her eyes widen. She's smiling. The grin is almost manic on her dirt-smeared face, the tangle of her projected heart-shaped hair buns fluttering behind her like the long gone butterflies as she runs, her limbs too stiff and worn to stretch anymore after her age-old vigil, towards the Pad. Her Diamond is back. Her friend has returned. At last. At ...

She stops when the giant figure materializes. The immense figure. It wears a cloak and hood, but even after all this time she recognizes it, and its colour.   
  
Blue.  
  
Blue Diamond looms over the smaller form of Spinel. Immediately, even after all this time, Spinel manages -- with some difficulty -- to raise her arms and twist the worn sheen the limbs together, even twisting them. It takes effort, and she bites down on her lip but still smiles, closing her eyes. Calling Blue her Diamond.  
  
But she isn't her Diamond.  
  
She doesn't know what to expect. She had been expecting one Diamond, but found another. One who had always given Pink orders. Spinel recalls Blue always lecturing Pink, always scolding her, or at turns, gently comforting her. Sometimes, more rarely, she'd witnessed her encouraging her friend. Even smiling down at her. But there has always been a regal air to Blue Diamond, and one was always mindful of their caste, of their place, of their role, in her presence. There had always been a distance in those diamond-shaped eyes so like, and so unlike her Diamond's. At the same time, there had often been some bemusement, and even some interest from time to time. But that gaze could become cold, and sharp. Spinel can still remember the room feeling colder when Blue was displeased, and there were those stories of her Shattering Gems that indulged in forbidden Fusions, or worse. And she can make a Gem feel anything she wants, or pass on what she is feeling to all the Gems in a room: even the other Diamonds. 

But when Spinel looks into Blue's eyes, all she sees is sadness. 

And she can feel it too.

Blue Diamond doesn't have to say anything. She knows. She knows Pink is gone. 

Spinel is still smiling as tears pour down her face. She knows she should be more wary of displaying emotion in front of a Diamond, especially with someone who emphasizes decorum like Blue, but she can't help it. She falls onto her knees in the dirt, and grime. The sobs reverberate through her like the frequency of Pink's old songs. And then, she notices, something picking her up. Something lifting her.   
  
It takes her a while, through her grief and pain, to realize that Blue Diamond is holding her in the palm of her hand. It isn't a hard grasp. It's gentle. She looks up and sees tears flowing down Blue's face. The pain there is real. She's speaking to her. Blue has never addressed Spinel directly before. Distantly, she hears that Blue understands that losing her Diamond must be painful, that Pink had been Shattered by Rebels on a world called Earth, but that she had been avenged by Homeworld, and the power of the Great Diamond Authority. Earth itself, she explains, will one day be destroyed as no site of a Diamond's Shattering would be allowed to stand. Yet those words do not seem to bring satisfaction to Blue's face or voice, and it also fails to placate Spinel's agony. Blue tells Spinel that she knows Pink thought of her fondly -- Pink, her Diamond, her friend -- and that she is one of Pink's few legacies left in the wake of her passing. As such, Blue wants to take Spinel with her. She wants to take her to a place dedicated to Pink's memory, where she can be of service to the Authority, and honour her late Diamond.  
  
Spinel doesn't know what to do at first. It's strange, especially when it is a Diamond who hasn't ordered her to leave with her, but told her that she would like her to come along. The imperative, of course, is implicit. Spinel isn't stupid. But Pink's order, her game, it's still in her being. It's still etched into her core. Into her very being. She was told to wait for her. But she's gone. She's gone, and she was Shattered ruling her Colony that turned against her ... Anger mixes with sorrow, and Spinel starts laugh. And laugh. And laugh. She's crying as well.  
  
She feels a giant finger touch her forehead. Blue Diamond's voice hushes her, and she feels a wave of contentment, and solace. It feels warm. She feels warm. She feels herself retreating into her gem. A part of her knows these feelings are being projected onto her, that there is an aura making her poof, but it doesn't hurt. And she wants to stop hurting, and just obey a Diamond's order. Even if it's to be quiet. Even if it's too sleep.  
  
Even if it isn't from her friend.  
  
The Zoo is an orbital station unlike the Garden. She's never been here. According to Blue Diamond, the facility had been created when Pink expressed interest in an organic species called humans: wanting to make sure that some would survive once their native planet was hollowed out into a successful Colony by Injectors, and Gem terraforming. As she explains the rest of the facility, Spinel gets a better picture of the entire thing. She can understand why Blue has preserved the Amethysts and other Quartzes created on Earth, made for Pink, as they run the facility. She even understands why she keeps the Rose Quartzes ... the former keepers of the humans in their bubbles. It's hard, to not disagree even with a Diamond. The Quartzes failed to protect their Diamond. One of the Rose Quartzes themselves betrayed, and Shattered the Diamond that made her. Spinel would like nothing more than to juggle each bubble and have the gem inside Shatter onto the floor.   
  
But humans ... Spinel wonders what Pink sees in them. She understood that Pink found organic beings fascinating, especially as they went from world to world staying with Yellow as she consolidated more Colonies for the Authority. But they sound messy. Short-lived. Loud. Stupid. It's something of an affront to Spinel that such weak, pathetic creatures would survive while her Diamond did not.   
  
Yet she goes in. She is introduced to a particularly prissy Agate, a Holly Blue. The Amethysts as there as well. Spinel realizes that while the majority are Amethysts, there are a few Jaspers, and even a Carnelian. All of them are dressed in the vests of their new Diamond: Blue. And, in front of them, is the Agate. Holly Blue makes it clear that they are to feed, and guard the "lesser lifeforms" in the habitat, that they should give thanks to Blue as the kind and merciful being that she is, and to not step out of line. Spinel immediately takes a dislike to her. She might not know or trust the Quartz soldiers that failed her Diamond, she doesn't like the way the Agate disdainfully looks at her. She served a Diamond, it's true. But she never had one as a constant companion. As her friend.   
  
Over time, Spinel -- grudgingly dressed in Blue's colours -- realizes that part of Holly's severity is probably due to jealousy. Whenever Blue, or sometimes Yellow, visits the Agate is always fawning, always over-friendly, and sycophantic. When they leave, she berates the Quartzes for their perceived faults, and seems to take great pleasure in reminding Spinel that she is a glorified toy: and that she should be grateful that Blue Diamond saw fit to save a relic like her, and that she -- Holly Blue -- would put her to a use benefiting her station, and purpose.   
  
Spinel doesn't lie to herself. If she weren't so afraid of angering the Diamonds, she would punch Holly Blue in the face. She'd also break those floating Rose Quartz gems in the chambers that she isn't allowed to go into, an irony that isn't lost on her, in that if Pink still existed, she would have been at her side. Or so she keeps telling herself. The Amethysts, in particular, laugh at her. They say she looks strange. Spinel knows she changed after poofing in Blue's hand. She is more angular now, her face more severe. There are even black streaks where her tears fell in the Garden now. She doesn't look in a reflective surface for too long.   
  
No. Holly Blue Agate enjoys placing her in the Zoo itself. She's sent in as glorified entertainment. For the humans. The Amethysts rarely go into the habitat itself, except for one instance where a Choosening went wrong.   
  
The strange creatures, divided for the most part into biological sexes such male and female, that ingested, excreted, and became comatose when they weren't playing around, also talked. It took a while for her to realize they communicated in way that she could understand. They liked it when she juggled, or made faces, or imitated voices. Sometimes, they made her dance with them. She was generally filthy afterwards. Out of everything in the facility, she has to admit that -- over time -- the blue vested humans with their pink earrings offend her the least out of everything else here. They are at least honest. They didn't have any role in her Diamond's destruction. They didn't even remember the world they came from, that will probably be destroyed soon enough. She doesn't take them personally anymore, she finds. They almost remind her of Pink's creations, particularly her Pebbles in their antics.   
  
Even the Quartz soldiers don't anger her as much after a while. There had been a few tussles, but she took them more seriously than they did. It had just been fun to them. She sees why they had been assigned to this place, as they are similar to the humans -- or Zoomans as they called them -- in temperament. It's ironic in a lot of ways. Once, Spinel had been just as fun-loving as all of them, perhaps even more so. She bonds with the Carnelian first, as they are the only two of their respective kind in the facility. Then, there are the Jaspers who are a little more reserved, but know how to laugh. It occurs to Spinel that she had almost forgotten what it was like. To laugh without bitterness.   
  
The Amethysts are still obnoxious, but she takes it in stride. Their heckling, which is what it was, was all engineered to get her to "lighten up." Sometimes, after entertaining the Zoomans -- which is what Spinel also takes to thinking of them as now -- they hang around, laughing at each other's jokes, playing pranks on one another, seeing how much they can get away with before Holly Blue catches them. It almost makes her forget about the pain. Almost.  
  
But then, there is the day of the Choosening: the mating and pair-bonding ritual that usually goes well with the soothing artificial intelligence whispering in the Zoomans' ears, but has wrong. They go in. Apparently, someone has rejected a choosening, and all of the Zoomans are in turmoil. Spinel has never seen them this unhappy before. She realizes, after talking with the Amethysts, that these beings have never known pain, or sadness. Or rejection. She doesn't know, seeing them crying into the arms of the Amethysts, if she should envy, or feel tremendous pity for them.   
  
She hears them talking about their feelings, about having something there, only for it to be snatched away. They feel no longer as one group, but scattered, confused, afraid ... It takes her a while to realize they are talking about feeling alone. It's ridiculous, of course. These Zoomans have always had someone there for them. They have had each other, their Gem handlers, even the voice in their ears. They have always been cared for. Always fed and clothed. They have never known pain, or suffering. Or loneliness. It just isn't possible.   
  
But when Spinel watches them crying, sobbing, the derisive part of her scoffing at their insignificant whining crumbles away. They live in a garden too. Sometimes, they must wonder -- the generations of them -- if anyone takes care of them. Apparently, according to some of the older Amethysts, the Rose Quartz Gems were better with them: with their natural empathy. It is something they had gotten from their Diamond.   
  
The same Diamond that left Spinel in their Garden. The same one that never contacted her again. The same one that was Shattered, leaving her alone.  
  
She entertains the Zoomans when they should be in their sleep cycle. It is a special occasion, and it isn't as though the Diamonds are visiting. Spinel doesn't care if Holly Blue disagrees, or tries to threaten her with her whip again. She's faced so much worse than that Agate in those thousands of years. Spinel even manages to get some of the Zoomans to laugh. Somehow, afterwards, when they hug her, she doesn't try to push them off. She holds them all.   
  
Deep down, she wishes that these poor, naive, creatures didn't have to learn what emotional pain truly was. She is sorry for them.   
  
After that, she finds herself talking with her fellow staff more. Some of them had even worked with Pink. They exchange stories. Over time, she tells them about the games she and Pink used to play. All the things they'd seen, and done together. All of it. And they were all Pink's too. This realization that she isn't the only one that misses Pink doesn't repair the metaphorical crack in her upside down heart-gem, but their camaraderie fills her with something other than loss.  
  
Then, one day, ages later the Zoo has guests. There is a Sapphire with a Ruby, a Pearl, and an Amethyst pretending to be a Jasper. They are delivering a human. Blue Diamond had taken a human, an older one, not long before. She still visited the Earth, apparently. At this point, she isn't allowed to visit the Zoomans anymore, unless an emergency happens. Holly Blue must have seen that she had been having too much fun with them. So, neither she nor the Quartz soldiers really go out of their way to impede them.   
  
Of course, she still goes into the habitat whether Holly Blue likes it, or not. She watches the new human interact with the older one and the others. Poor Wy-Six, Jay-Ten, and the others. She is less sympathetic towards U-12 and U-3 as they had already "choosened" each other. That word still annoys her, but she supposes the group empathy is something at least.  
  
It gets more interesting when the two humans escape, and they go into the room with the Rose Quartz. She doesn't go that fair, however, but instead stays with the Amethysts and the humans at the Guard Station. The young human is different. There is something about ... him. She can't figure it out. He had been particularly agile and knowledgeable. And then there is the matter of the Pearl ... something about being there scratching at the back of Spinel's mind.   
  
Of course, the motley band of Gems and the humans barely make it back to their ship, to escape -- the human's father being their objective -- before they screw up. Spinel could've made a better misdirection than that. But Spinel doesn't lie. She enjoys it when the Pearl blackmails Holly Blue, after the Garnet Fusion humiliates both her propriety and physical prowess. They leave. She thinks about asking to go with them. She wonders who they are. She has some suspicions, but she knows it can't be true. The Crystal Gems were destroyed ages ago. Certainly, Rose Quartz is gone.   
  
She decides, not to go with them. Besides, she's gotten used to this place, to taking care of the Zoomans who like her acts, and playing with the Quartz soldiers -- who she knows now are laughing with her, and never at her. And once the rogue Gems leave, she doubles down on the blackmail on Holly Blue. She grins, relishing the way the Agate wilts under her smile. She could end her whenever she wants. Unlike the others, Spinel doesn't particularly have qualms about the Agate being poofed, or even Shattered. But she doesn't want to endanger her fellow staff or the Zoomans. So, Holly Blue gets to keep her gem, and save face, while Spinel is the real leader of the Zoo, of this madhouse. Somehow, she thinks Pink would approve, wherever she is now.   
  
And even when, later, they receive a communication making her wonder how right she is, at least she knows she's where she needed to be. The Zoo becomes less a Zoo and more an amusement park -- a circus -- for all those involved. And after all, Spinel thinks to herself, isn't the best circus a _family_ circus? 


	11. Facet III: Off Colors

It begins when Pink Diamond is about to claim her new Colony. But before she does, she kneels down and looks at Spinel.  
  
At first, she tells Spinel that they are going to play "the Statue Game." At least, that's what she is about to say. But then Spinel sees her looking at her, at the way she's fidgeting back and forth, at her eagerness to finally do something again that will entertain her Diamond. Finally, Pink Diamond says that they are going to play hide and seek instead. Pink is "it." She is going to hide, and after a certain stretch of time, Spinel is going to attempt to find her. Spinel likes this idea. She asks how long she should wait for Pink, to find her again.   
  
Pink gives her a long number. 

Spinel is all right with this. She likes a challenge.

So Pink has her close her eyes, and count the numbers. She has her go deeper into the Garden. Spinel's anxiety gives over to a bubbling of excitement. She understands. Pink is going to be busy, and she doesn't want Spinel to have to wait -- being bored, and having nothing to look forward to -- until she returns for her. This will tide her over. And when the time is up, she will be able to act, and find her Diamond. 

Spinel feels the butterflies flit across her hair buns. She imagines the feeling of shooting stars passing by. She can hear leaves falling, and flower plopping to the ground, and the retreat of grass. When she finally reaches the number, counting loudly to herself, she opens her eyes, and begins her search.

The Garden has seen better days. Spinel wishes someone had maintained it better. Maybe Pink will send someone to deal with it, or use her power to regenerate the organic matter. There are still many hiding places left for Pink to be hiding herself. She is still "it." Spinel takes some time to swing around, and flex herself out. She doesn't find Pink behind the trees, or columns. She isn't in the tall grasses laying in wait. Not even in the flowers, the remainder, that are still growing wild with thorns, or the layers of dead vines. Not behind the hovering communication screen. Nowhere.   
  
She even checks to see if Pink has changed her form. She likes to do that sometimes, a thing the other Diamonds frown on, but Pink will use every advantage at her disposal to win at a game with Spinel. Spinel turns large, then small. Sometimes she bounces into the sky to get a more aerial view of the Garden and all its crevices, and potential hiding places. It's fun, for a while. But then she notices, she's not getting anywhere. She must be missing something, something obvious, and in plain sight.   
  
Spinel tries the facility with Pink's items, given to her by the other Diamonds. It'd be a dirty trick, if she were here in this place she rarely visited, but there is nothing there but items gathering dust. She finds a Rejuvenator, though. She twirls it around, and plays with it. She's careful not to hit herself with it of course, but no self-respecting Spinel would fumble a spin, or tossing act.   
  
She is stubborn, but it occurs to her that she is well, and truly stumped. Fear starts to grip Spinel's core over time. What if something happened to Pink? What if she displeased the other Diamonds, and they sent her into the Tower again? Or maybe something happened with her Colony? Or she keeps missing her somehow in her investigations? But as these thoughts, and more glitter through Spinel's mind, she recalls how Pink never truly does anything in a simple manner. She always thinks outside of the box, but in the most obvious way.   
  
Spinel racks her mind ... until it hits her like a confection to the face. _Pink isn't in the Garden!_ _She's on Homeworld!_   
  
It makes so much sense. A thousands year long Hide and Seek game. Pink must be on Homeworld. Maybe she lost interest in her Colony. It'd not be the first time. Spinel watched Pink lose interest in many games, and pets. She hoped, deep down, she wasn't one of them. Not another phase of hers. But Spinel realizes that Pink has been testing her. It's brilliant. She is testing her resolve, and her problem-solving skills. That's it. She didn't lose her Colony. She's mastered it, and watching to see if Spinel will take the initiative to think outside of the box, again, and find her. Then she will have a place in her Court, and their games will continue. She likes this long game. It's one of the most ambitious things Pink Diamond has ever done.   
  
So when she goes to the Warp Pad, Spinel feels cautious. Technically, she hasn't been given permission to leave the Garden, but she feels like it has been all but implied. And so, she takes one last look at the decaying Garden, waves at it, takes her baton -- which is the Rejuvenator -- and teleports away from this place to find her Diamond.   
  
She has no idea what she's going to discover.   
  
She makes it to the Palace, but the Gems don't recognize her. She doesn't see any of Pink's entourage anywhere. Not even her Pearl. They ask who she is, and she tells them she is Pink's Spinel. She doesn't think it's against the rules to get a clue as to where her Diamond is. But Pink's game is more grandiose than Spinel anticipates. The other Gems say that Pink is gone. Gone! That her Colony was destroyed in a Rebellion. That she had been Shattered by a Rose Quartz of all things.   
  
Oh, it's clever. Pink must really have clout now, to get other Gems in on the game. This really is a test of Spinel's perseverance and loyalty. The Gems even go as far as to chase her, and call her an impostor and report to the Diamonds. She does not. But she doesn't want Pink to know she asked them where she was. So she uses the Rejuvenator on them. They forget everything.   
  
She goes into Pink's Room, but she isn't there. She isn't even with her Pebbles, who hide from her. Spinel still doesn't think anything is wrong, even when more Gem soldiers see her, and go after her: furious at her colour. The colour of her Diamond. More ridiculous tests.   
  
It takes a while for it all to sink in. Spinel leaves the Palace, and haunts the walkways and twisting corridors of Homeworld. She asks herself just how many Gems are in on Pink's game? None say they have seen her, even when she erases their memory that as she asked later. That she's gone. Shattered. Eventually, more soldiers start coming after her, even if they don't know who she is. Spinel has covered her tracks well. She recalls that, eventually, the Gems taken by a Rejuvenator can regain their memories, or be re-programmed by higher caste members. Certainly, Diamonds could restore them, or so she thinks. 

Then the Robonoids come after her.   
  
She's seen them, but ... not like this. They hover now. They release energy blasts. She manages to destroy them, but more come for her. It's worse as she goes into the deeper places of Homeworld.   
  
The scythe doesn't reset the Robonoids, whose beams feel decidedly deadly. But she can wreck them with her strength, and avoid them. Mostly, she's hiding now. Surely Pink can understand how a seeker can still hide, right? Perhaps she has to be ready for combat. Spinel recalls that there are Kindergartens, deep underground, where the oldest Gems had been constructed, born from the earth when Homeworld was young. Pink and her entourage, they are hiding down there. Maybe there is a Warp Pad to her Colony. She hasn't been able to find one, wondering if she is supposed to get there, and she hasn't gotten a ship yet: as she has no idea where this Colony is. It's on no maps anymore. No star charts.   
  
The truth is, Spinel is getting tired at this point. She is constantly on the run. No one seems to know why she is there, or why she wears Pink's colour. It doesn't make sense. And the Robonoids aren't stopping. If they are test constructs, they are very realistic. And she wonders where Pink actually is ...  
  
One dark day, hiding in the shadows, finding off her unease, she finds ... _them_.   
  
Her core jolts in absolute shock. She has never seen Gems like these before. They are living in the old Kindergartens. They are ... freaks. There's no pleasant way to describe them. Several are Fused together into one almost centipede-like being. Two are joined at the hip and gem. There is one Fusion that looks like a Pearl and a Ruby at the same time. Then, an orange Sapphire? And others.  
  
Off Colors. She'd heard of them. In passing. Like legends, or horror stories. Unnatural Fusions, Gem creations gone wrong ... defectives ... She never dreamed they existed. They scare her. They terrify her.   
  
The Robonoids find them before Spinel can scream, or run away. The Off Colors are the ones that run instead, telling her to do so too. It almost doesn't feel real until one of the Robonoids scans an Off Color that didn't run far enough, or hide well.   
  
The Robonoid takes her with its beam.   
  
And Shatters her.  
  
It's like the construct destroys Spinel's gem instead. Cold, empty, horror feels her very being. It instills a fear, and a ... despair she hasn't felt before. Not like this. It's worse than the revulsion she felt towards the Off Colors. When she watches that Gem die, Spinel feels the weight of thousands of years crumble and shatter inside of her, turning dark and fragmented like a broken word. Or a piercing lie.   
  
She feels numb, even as voices tell her to follow them. To follow them deeper into the tunnels. Into the dark. Into nothingness.   
  
And Spinel, realizing this isn't a game anymore, that it's never been a game at all, follows them down.   
  
Time passes more slowly in this darkness than it ever did in the Garden. Spinel is quiet now. Almost silent. The remaining Off Colors surround her, but she's numb to their appearances. They don't matter. Nothing does. She is surrounded by monsters, but she's alone. Her Diamond is gone. She's really gone. And Spinel is alone.   
  
She thinks about running away, sometimes. But she doesn't. She's not sure why. The coils of Fluorite comfort her, for some reason. The ancient Fusion speaks slow, and ponderously. She can feel her thrumming. It helps to keep the terror and pain away. The Rutile ... split into two, but one, she is comforting too. She asks her who she is, and where she came from. And why she is so pink, and wearing a lost Diamond's garment. Rhodonite asks her, nervously, if she is on the run from someone in the Authority. And, right after watching the Shattering above, the orange Sapphire Padparadscha pats her on the head, and tells her that she predicts she will face the terrible truth, but meet new friends from the ordeal. It's somehow both endearing, and utterly, darkly, hilarious.   
  
Spinel laughs. She can't help it. She laughs so hard, that she cries. She cries a great deal.   
  
For some reason, the Off Colors don't leave her. They don't forget about her like the other Gems have. They don't abandon her like her Diamond has done.   
  
They are being hunted. The Shattering Robonoids were made to destroy "defective Gems," like the Off Colors. They work better helping each other in groups than they do on their own. The Great Diamond Authority demands perfection in its subjects, and it tolerates no dissent: not even naturally. It's so ridiculous. And, Spinel realizes, it also isn't fair. They travel together for a while, as Spinel slowly opens up about who she is, and her Diamond, and how she sought her out. Apparently, there are many rumours of what happened to Pink. A renegade Rose Quartz Shattered her. A rogue Pearl. A mutant organic-mineral hybrid that destroyed Gems got her. They are all so ridiculous, these stories. Spinel can almost picture Pink making them up, and spreading them throughout the populace like a large game of "Broken Communications."   
  
It hurts. For the first time in ages, Spinel doesn't know who or what she is. Even so, she finds herself juggling in front of Rhodonite. She never separates into Ruby and Pearl. They have each other. A Fusion of servants to a Morganite. The juggling seems to calm down Rhodonite's nervous disposition, mesmerizing her, getting her to talk without tenseness or stuttering. She explores a lot with Rutile ... with both of them, and sometimes delights in taking sides in their arguments, but their obvious dependence and cooperation with each other by necessity. Fluorite slowly mumbles stories, and praises Spinel. Her warmth, of all of her different Gems, reminds her ... almost of Pink, but wiser, more relaxed, and in some ways more patient.   
  
And Padparadscha ... At first, she wonders if the Orange Sapphire is pranking her. Always making ridiculous predictions of something that happened just before. Like a pebble falling on her head, and telling her after the fact to watch out. It takes her a while, but she realizes she is defective. She can't predict the future.   
  
And Spinel realizes that she couldn't either. She also realizes that all of these Off Colors have someone, someone at their side, who will never leave them. They suffer, and they are hunted, but they love each other. She actually manages to fight many of the Robonoids that come for them. Who knew that being an agile entertainer and acrobat could be the bane of Gem Hunters everywhere.   
  
The truth is, while Spinel wonders if her friendship had ever been real before, it almost feels real now. With them. 

Misfits, mutants, and discarded toys need to stick together, after all.

So when the two creatures, organic beings, almost bring the Robonoids to them, she gets angry. She's unkind, and she knows it. She slashes them with her scythe even Rutile tells her to stop. The tall one ... the tall one isn't affected at all. But the short one ... wearing ... wearing pink of all things, that one actually glows with the Rejuvenator's energy. It takes her aback. They are not Off Colors. She has seen enough organic life with Pink to know they shouldn't be here, in the tunnels, or on Homeworld. Afterwards, she sees how battered they are, as she had been, and feels sheepish.   
  
They take the two beings -- these humans -- to the other Off Colors. They introduce themselves. Steven. Lars. She smiles at their confusion over Padparadscha. She actually sees them, particularly the short one -- Steven -- try to talk gently to Rhodonite. She doesn't lie to herself. If they treated any of her friends with disrespect, she would Shatter them.   
  
But then ... the Robonoids come.   
  
There are many of them. Too many. Spinel is the only fighter among the Off Colors, but she can't fight all of them. And then ... she sees Steven try to ... make something. A shield? It's pink and it crackles, and then it's gone. And then she sees ... that Steven has a gem. A gem in organic matter? But then, Lars jumps in front of Steven. And the others. The Robonoids scan Lars, but can't detect any gem on the human.   
  
Between her and Lars, they destroy the Robonoids. The human actually maneuvers them well into obliterating each other. But then ... one last Robonoid nearly gets her.   
  
And Lars dives at it.  
  
The other Off Colors don't see it. They think Lars will get up. But she sees Steven's tears. And she knows enough about organic life to realize what's happened.   
  
And then, Steven kneels over Lars' body. At first, the power crackles, puttering on and off. Spinel immediately regrets hitting the human with the Rejuvenator, starting to get an idea of what she did.   
  
But nothing prepares her for what happens next.  
  
Steven glows pink. The human radiates this power. For a few moments, Spinel is taken back in time at the sheer power and presence emanating from the human's gem. She sees the energy suffusing Lars, turning the human to its hue, reviving the being. Bringing him back to life. Spinel is speechless. The other Off Colors celebrate. Steven laughs. And Spinel takes it all in, the shock and a mixture of other emotions filling her.   
  
She wants to go forward. She doesn't know. She isn't sure. Pink used to disguise herself all the time. Could this be it? Could Pink be in this human somehow? Is this the last test?   
  
Spinel almost asks him. But he has to go back. He has to leave. He says he needs to go back to his family. He can somehow enter through Lars now! Lars offers the rest of them passage as well, to get off of this world. She looks around at her fellow Off Colors, and realizes they are all of the same mind. Steven promises to be back for them. She finds herself telling him they will keep Lars safe.  
  
After the Human Gem Hybrid is gone, Spinel and the Off Colors plan to get off of Homeworld with Lars. They can steal a ship easily now. No one will expect whatever Lars is now. And any Gem in their way can have their memory reset by her scythe. They are going to leave. They are going to go to Earth: where Steven and his family are. These ... Crystal Gems that apparently rebelled against Homeworld millennia ago while she played her game with Pink.  
  
And, perhaps, that game is still on.   
  
Spinel shakes her head in the borrowed ship as they depart on many more adventures. Pink, if she is in Steven, must have forgotten. She created a disguise so clever, she forgot who she even was. But she was "it." And Spinel touched Steven with her Rejuvenator without even knowing who, or what, he is. She thinks of going into Lars' body, and finding him, but she remembers the parameters of the game.   
  
She touched Steven. Pink, or Steven, isn't "it" anymore. Spinel is "it" now.   
  
And now, it is his turn to come back to her, and her friends. 


	12. Facet IV: Earth-1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, for something different. You might see some similarities with a previous dark chapter here, but it's like George Lucas likes to say. "Everything rhymes."

It doesn't go the way that Spinel thinks.

But, if she is honest with herself, she didn't really know what was going to happen next. Improvisation is a surprise like that. 

Spinel surveys the atmosphere of the transformed planet. The Rebels called it "Earth." She hadn't been sure, when the ruins of the Temple shook and her bubble burst, plummeting her to the ground, what happened. The last Spinel had remembered, the Rebels had captured her after she won her fight against Rose Quartz ... against Pink Diamond, and her inner circle of traitors. The Rejuvenator scythe cut through them, with Pink just barely losing. It'd taken everything Spinel had, before the Rebels broke away from the distraction of War, to go to their leader.

There had been a few interrogations, especially to make her turn off her Injector. They'd failed. The Bismuth had been furious. She wanted to Shatter her, but she couldn't. Not when the Injector needed to be stopped. 

It turns out, however, that even Spinel had failed.

Now, Spinel walks above ground. She's been doing it for a while. The surface of this world is supposed to be barren. And some parts of it are, glossy, or pock-marked, or simply desolate. Like the feeling in her upside down pink heart.   
  
But most of it isn't.

The Mirror she retrieved from the ground, or the Temple, told her enough. It showed her three Diamonds -- White, Yellow, and Blue -- with a Light that enveloped everything. Spinel had only seen it from a distance, underground in the ruins of the Crystal Gem Temple. Otherwise, she would be like ...

Like_ them_.

Even she has to admit that the Diamonds are terrifying when they are angry. Corrupted beings, beasts and monsters, roam the Earth. They fight, or spread, or eat everything in their path. Spinel recalls it taking her some time to realize they were Gems. Whether they were Homeworld troops, or Crystal Gems Rebels is irrelevant now. They have gone mad, their projections as twisted as the discoloured dots staining their gems, not unlike the mould she saw grow on her for millennia when she stood in that Garden, waiting for a friend that was never coming back for her.

So the Diamonds hadn't destroyed all the Rebel Gems, but turned them into these creatures with a Corrupting Light. Spinel sees all of them. She'd already had to deal with the behemoth that grew out of the Bismuth, to get her gem to open the Forge that held her Rejuvenator, and other helpful tools. There are other things too. Stranger beings, if they can be called that. Limbs linked together, projected eyes and organs crawling after anything that moved. She isn't sure if they were made by the Diamond attack, or if they'd been artificially Fused together as shards before. She avoids them, as something occasionally rumbles under the ground and makes her consider if there are ... larger unnatural Fusions made by Homeworld, or the Rebels somewhere else. Even then, Spinel wondered what happened to ... the others. Before they could interrogate her again, she recalls the Bismuth and the squabbling members of the Crystal Gems gathering Pink Diamond, revealed to them for what she really was, her memory reset by the Rejuvenator, to the surface. The Ruby and Sapphire still didn't remember who they were, and the Pearl had to be reactivated by the other Rebels, and knew even less. Spinel recalls the Bismuth hoping that with time, the other three would recall who and what they were, while trying to figure out what to do with Pink Diamond: the being she'd thought was her mentor, and friend.   
  
Spinel recalls relating to that feeling she saw on the construction Gem's face.   
  
But then, Homeworld forces came close, and they had to go and meet them. Spinel wondered what happened to the Gems she reset. And to Pink.  
  
It's almost too much for Spinel when she gets her answers.   
  
The monster that predicted all of her movements, that seemed to anticipate where she would move next ... she's amazed, even now, that two Corrupted Gems could still Fuse, that they _remained Fused_. As ravening as those jaws were, there were glimmers of intelligence underneath the beast-like cunning of those three eyes. She had to use the Rejuvenator on the thing, to reset it again. It defused, and she ran before anything else could happen.   
  
The thing that used to be the Pearl was even worse. It was bloated. Twisted. It had no eyes, except for its gem. And it was always searching for something. For someone. It had duplicated itself, and each duplicate fought with spears stained with some kind of steaming, black ichor. Their red eyes glittered in the darkness of the fading world, their gem facsimiles making it so that they almost had three eyes as well, their mouths arachnid. Hissing. And more Corrupt Gems kept leaping out of the main creature. Pearls had great storage capacity, and as each monster, more horrible than the next jumped out of its gem from its forehead, as it screamed what almost sounded like a name, Spinel isn't ashamed enough to admit to herself that she didn't even try to engage with it.  
  
She ran.   
  
And now, Spinel gets her final answer.  
  
Her Injector should have destroyed all life on this planet. That had been part of the plan. Her last bit of spite towards the Crystal Gems who, she thought, Shattered her best friend. But that didn't happen.   
  
No, the Injector finished its payload. The Rebels didn't get the chance to stop it before more Homeworld troops came in. But Spinel has been finding larger and larger patches of ... organic life. But even she knows there is something ... off about it. Something ...  
  
_Wrong_.   
  
The Mirror is flashing between the large fingers of her gloves, but she ignores it and the strange symbols it shows her. There is grass that snarls and hisses. There are trees with fruits that grow legs, or wings that attack. These are just irritants to Spinel. They remind her a lot of some of the life forms that existed in a few of Yellow Diamond's Colonies, when she used to visit them with ... Spinel has seen a few ... humanoid shapes, but they are mostly like melted rock, or clay. There is something eerily familiar about them. The grasses themselves are rainbow colours, but putrid, and ravenous.   
  
This growth, for lack of a better word, is spreading across the blasted planet: turning it into a carnivorous, cannibalistic ecosystem where so many other environments used to exist. Before the Corrupting Light.  
  
Before Spinel.  
  
She follows the path of the growth, and notices patches that are more luminous than others. More fresh. She hacks through snapping red-fanged petals, and thorns the size of gem blades when she finds ....  
  
_Her_.  
  
It is truly radiant where she rests. She is ... she's massive now. It's hard to even process what Spinel is seeing, as she doesn't look like anything she's seen before. She's repulsive. She's horrific. She makes the creature that was a Pearl look like a runt. Spinel can see that whatever this Beast is now, it used to have more legs. Many more. Wherever it walked, the tracks matching the shape of the legs, it spread this ... growth through the world. Now, it's spreading it through another way. It's like a deformed, massive statue. Water pours, constantly, out of its eye-sockets. Many, many orbs regard Spinel from those sockets as she realizes the stained, massive creature woven with spider silk, and something approximating organic matter that doesn't conceal hard, warped, shimmering edges of mineral, is weeping.   
  
Spinel takes a step towards the Corrupted thing. Its many eyes follow her, but it makes no move. At all. She realizes, it can't move. It's too big. Thorny vines make a rat's nest around it, a wall of biting, snarling, crimson flowers. Red and ...   
  
For a moment, Spinel activates her scythe. She eyes the creature, her magenta eyes narrowing. A few emotions flicker through her being as she realizes what this is. It seems like the universe does, in fact, have a sense of humour after all.   
  
She takes another step, putting the Mirror on her belt, ignoring its warnings, its fear. At first, Spinel is puzzled. _She_ should have been able to resist, or protect herself from the Light. Spinel is sure of it. But then she remembers the Rejuvenator, and how ... she might have forgotten how to do even that. She is still powerful, still fearsome. In the distance, she sees the other Corrupted Gems come towards the boundaries of these new fields, and immediately flee them. Even they cannot deal with the corrupted terraforming that the sheer presence of this monster is creating by its very aura alone. It actually sickens Spinel, to see her this way.   
  
But then, she remembers the Garden. The Garden decayed in a similar manner. It wasn't as grandiose as this, but she saw it through all of its stages as she stood there, waiting for her friend, for their game to end. She looks down at the scythe, at the Rejuvenator for a few moments, before disengaging it and putting it back on her belt.   
  
Spinel and the creature regard each other for a long time, the latter's breaths rumbling and laboured. Spinel wonders if she still has any part of her mind left. If there is some part of her still inside that mass. She hopes so.  
  
She hopes so when she speaks to her. _Let's play a game, _she says.   
  
_Stand very still._   
  
A cold smile forms on Spinel's face, at the monster, as she turns around ... a moment of grim satisfaction, a spike of joyful malice, turned almost as quickly into bitter, empty, mulch, as she feels the rest of her purpose drain from her. When she leaves the creature to the fate she's made for herself, it's as though she's already drifting away.   



	13. Facet IV: Earth-2

Spinel lands on the planet with her Injector. 

She's chosen an excellent spot too. Right in front of the Crystal Gem Temple. On top of the Injector, Spinel's mouth forms into a derisive smirk. Did the Rebels build this during the War to glorify their leader? Why does it still have all of the Great Diamond Authority insignia on it after all this time? All_ four_ Diamonds together? Did they build it, and the primitive human-based house, and its pathetic attempt at a fence from something that used to belong to Pink Diamond?  
  
Or was Rose Quartz or ... whatever she calls herself these days, just think that highly of herself, even after losing her war of independence? 

The Crystal Gems, what's left of them, are startled as her Injector thuds into the earth. They are wearing some colourful human material too, some attempts at clothing. The Garnet, wearing her Rebel symbol in a Tie-Die pattern, brandishes her thick, stony gauntlets, while the Pearl -- the very _familiar_ Pearl -- wears a gossamer blue dress as she forms her spear, standing in front of a tall, round figure in a pinkish-white dress, magenta curled tresses surrounding a maternal face. 

Rose Quartz. 

Spinel's had a long time to memorize the names, and abilities, and characteristics of these Gems. Their wanted posters, their reputations, had been told all the way to Homeworld. She's memorized all of them. The Garnet Fusion, and skill in predicting the moves of her opponents. The Pearl that can actually fight. And Rose Quartz, the Gem that had supposedly mobilized a large majority of Pink Diamond's own Colony against her, with her treacherous stance to protect organic life, and those of treacherous Gems against the Great Diamond Authority and all of Gemkind that had started the whole War. 

When Pearl sees Spinel, however, her face slackens with shock. She actually goes as far as to put her hand over her mouth. Her eyes dart from Spinel, to Rose Quartz, and back. Her hand never leaves her face. The Garnet asks Pearl and Rose Quartz if they know who she is. A part of Spinel rages -- _rages_ \-- over this ... this one last slight. But for a moment, it's Spinel's turn to be surprised, as an Amethyst -- or a Gem too short to be an Amethyst -- asks what's up with the clown.   
  
This is new. She has short white hair, wearing a black body suit, and a ... blue tutu. She has a whip in her hand, summoned from her gem. She is just ... gawking at Spinel. Like she has never seen a Spinel before. It'd actually be funny ... no. It _is_ funny. 

Spinel can't help it. She laughs.  
  
She keeps laughing. This midget Amethyst thinks _she's_ ridiculous? She is out of place, compared to a perpetual Ruby and Sapphire Fusion, a Pearl that thinks she can fight, and a Rose Quartz that claims she Shattered a Diamond?   
  
It's when the human, with the long dark hair and black T-shirt comes out, standing behind Rose Quartz, asking her what's going on, looking at Spinel with brandishing her scythe, that the Gem really can't stop it, and truly howls with laughter. 

Oh, this is rich. This is all that's left of the Crystal Gem Rebellion? And they have a pet human? Garnet demands to know what Spinel is doing here. And she looks down at them. A part of her wants to attack them, but ... she reconsiders. No. She's waited a long time for this. She's remotely viewed this world, listened to its primitive radio waves too, formed not even a few decades ago after thousands of years of nothing. She expected a little more from the organic life that the Rebellion claimed to value so much. But she has performed in cruder places than this beach. She asks the Gem in front of the team if she is Rose Quartz.  
  
Spinel takes the time to look at her face. She can't resist. The entire time this exchange has gone down, Rose's eyes widened, and then became downcast. Her hair covers her eyes as dramatically as all the play sessions that Spinel ever had with Pink Diamond. She sees her shield, generated from her gem, but there is also a sword of the same colour in her hand. Rose Quartz ... she can't even meet Spinel's gaze. 

So ... she does feel something after all.  
  
Rose nods her head. Finally, she looks up. There is ... some emotion in her eyes. Is it sadness? Regret? _Pity_? All of these possibilities make Spinel seethe inside. How dare she? After everything she's done, how dare this ... how dare she look at her like that?   
  
That's when Spinel forms her glove into a horn. That's when she blows into it. The other Gems push the human, the male as understands the division of those species, back. So sweet, protecting their leader's little pet. The Injector's drill twirls and pierces through the earth's crust. The liquid inside it begins to decant. Spinel and Rose Quartz face each other down. A bitter smirk forms on Spinel's face. She knows exactly what this is. She should. It's not as though she, or her Pearl hadn't seen one before.   
  
The Amethyst isn't incredulous anymore. She looks at the drill, and her eyes begin to unfocus, looking far away in fear. Ah, so she's seen something like this before? Perhaps from her recent Kindergarten days? The Garnet grabs her, holding her protectively, talking to her, trying to comfort her.   
  
All of them are gathering around Rose Quartz, ready to spring into action. All ready to defend each other. To fight alongside one another. The human asks Rose what's going on, calls her by name. She actually flinches when he does so.   
  
Spinel knows how to read a room. She is going to destroy this world. She is going to take away the vestiges of what this ... Rose Quartz claims to love, right in front of her. Her friends are going to die. And she knows it.   
  
But that isn't good enough. Spinel sees their love for each other, and it feels her with ... with rage. These friends. These ... loved ones ... Getting to be here. Even if they die, even if they are Shattered, or reverted by her Rejuvenator, which she _knows_ Rose Quartz is aware of, it just isn't good enough. Not after what was done to her for almost six thousand years. So Spinel waits.   
  
The Crystal Gems tense, ready to spring at her. To start this fight, and be finished by it.  
  
There is a small, but commanding voice, barely heard over the rumble of the Injector.   
  
It says _stop_.   
  
Rose Quartz holds out her hands. Spinel watches as she dematerializes her shield, and drops her sword onto the ground. She is warding the other Gems away from her. She says she will deal with Spinel. Alone. 

Spinel watches as the Gems actually squabble. They argue with their leader. They tell her not to go. The Pearl looks especially frantic, as if she wants to say something more, but keeps looking at her companions, back and forth. There's this ... helpless look in her eyes. The human is looking scared. He is begging Rose to stay. Spinel observes Rose place a hand on Pearl's head, telling her something. The Pearl wavers, and then bows. With her other hand, she turns and holds the male human's face. She tells him something else. Spinel can't see Rose's eyes, but her mouth is furrowed. There's some moisture there. 

Then, Rose nods at the Garnet. The Garnet nods back after a while, staying on guard. It's the Amethyst that completely loses her composure. She launches herself at Rose, holding onto the hem of her dress, burying her face in her belly. Her eyes are filled with anxiety. She's begging her not to leave them. Rose, for her part, pats Amethyst on the head, and holds her back. She says something that almost looks encouraging. It reminds Spinel of something ... something from a long time ago, and the fact that Rose is going to deal with her personally, only makes that ancient pain somehow sweeter for it.   
  
Spinel jumps from the Injector, as it chugs its contents into the earth, and lands some distance from it, but in plain sight. Rose Quartz walks towards her.   
  
As Rose approaches, Spinel looks down at her scythe. And deactivates it. She wonders, distantly, what the Crystal Gems think about that. But they don't matter, at least not without their connection to the figure in front of her now. This is what it is all truly about.   
  
Spinel tells her to come no further. To stay where they are. She wants some distance from her, but she also wants to be sure that their audience continues to get their front row seats to the end of this play, even if they are a menagerie.   
  
Finally, they face each other. Rose's mouth is set into a grim line, as her hair continues to cover her eyes. Spinel lets the situation sit for a while, before Rose orders her to turn the Injector off. Spinel, then, bows. She actually bows. Then, she raises herself up, and twists her arms together into the Homeworld salute that she never quite got right. She tells Rose that she will not obey a Rebel Gem, but she only takes orders from a Diamond.   
  
Her Diamond.  
  
Rose doesn't move, but Spinel sees her reverberate with some kind of emotion. Spinel understands that shapeshifting does take a toll on an ordinary Gem. Even she, a little better at it than most, can feel the strain set in, especially when she is attempting to accomplish more than a few tasks at a time. And, like or superior to a Pearl, she is good at multitasking. But she knows that Rose is even better at it.   
  
She would be.   
  
They used to play games like these, all the time. Not quite at this level, or for this long, but there is a precedent. She knew. She knew the day she saw the footage, and how she fought, how she moved, the way she healed her Rebel friends, her attraction towards strange organic lives, the way she collects strange and unusual beings and specimens of Gems around her. That need for freedom. For independence.   
  
Rose doesn't say anything. She doesn't ask her how she knows. Of course she realizes how Spinel figured it out. 

Spinel begins to monologue. Just like the old days, during their play fights, when it was her turn to take on the role of antagonist, of the villain, in their game. 

She tells Rose that she waited for her, in their Garden. She waited ever since the time she left for her new Colony. Spinel spares no detail. She watches Rose's face as she talks about the passing of the butterflies, the shooting stars in the sky, the crumbling of the citadel she left behind with all of her goodies, the bushes and trees growing out of control, and dying, and being reborn, and being choked by weeds and mould. She talks about how she watched everything turn into dust in front of her, and all around her as she obeyed that one, simple, command. How she waited for her to come back, and play with her again.   
  
How she waited for her friend to come back.   
  
Then, she tells her about the communication. How the Diamonds reported her death. Her Shattering. How they had avenged it. How they had unleashed their power and wiped all the Rebels off the face of the Earth. There had been centuries of mourning for her destruction, apparently. Rituals and ceremonies were created to commemorate the passing of a Diamond, an unprecedented thing. And that communication, had been a series of them throughout all the Colonies, marking the over five thousand years to the day that Pink Diamond had been Shattered.   
  
And Spinel had only gotten the tail end of that communication.   
  
Then, Spinel's face narrows in fury. In pure, unadulterated rage. She tells Rose how she searched for the location of this world, how she changed, how she wanted to come here and see for herself that the Rebels had been destroyed, how the being that killed her Diamond had been punished, that she could know that justice had been done to the friend who would never see her again, whom she thought would never abandon her after everything they'd gone through together. Instead, as she gathered intelligence, she found ... them. She'd watch them, these remnants of the Crystal Gems, at this place called Beach City fighting the Corrupted remains of Gems that fought in the War. And when she saw how Rose fought, she knew exactly what happened, and who she was.   
  
Spinel laughs at her. Did she really think she could expect anyone to believe that her Pearl would follow anyone else? That she could remain hidden while living in a Temple built on the foundations of the old Authority symbol? She tells her that she had never been good at hiding, that she never paid attention to the details, and that this is what ultimately brought her to this state. Spinel tells Rose that she is pathetic. That she's glad that her Rebellion failed. She's glad she lost most of her friends, and that she hopes this feeling allows her to experience just an inkling of what she felt when she had been abandoned in their dead Garden like so much useless rubble. She tells her that she is going to enjoy destroying her friends, and the human she's ... consorting with, that she will obliterate this miserable planet, and leave her with nothing just as she'd left her with nothing.   
  
That's the very least she deserves.   
  
Spinel makes a show of tensing her knees, about to launch back onto the Injector. 

But then Rose makes her move.

Rose Quartz, the leader of the Crystal Gems, and the former Pink Diamond falls. To her knees.   
  
Very quietly, she says the words. It takes Spinel a moment to hear them. Perhaps it's the noise around them, or Spinel's own swirling feelings rumbling in the center of her upside down heart. She sees the tears falling down Rose's cheeks. Her head is bowed. As the tears drop to the ground, flowers -- pink roses -- bloom.   
  
Rose tells her that there is no way she can ever make up for what she did. Especially to Spinel. She admits that she messed everything up. She tells Spinel that she had been inconsiderate, and arrogant. That she hadn't really felt the feelings of others, even as they had captivated her. She tells her that she's learned so much here, on this world, that should have been her Colony. She tells her that she's glad she stopped it from happening, that she doesn't regret fighting in the War, or finding Earth. But Rose continues on to say that she had to get away. She couldn't be on Homeworld or in that galaxy anymore. She tells Spinel that she wishes she could have had the strength to tell her that their time together had been over. That it'd been over for a long time. She didn't understand, then. She didn't consider the consequences of her power, or authority and what that would do.   
  
Above all, Rose tells her that she regrets all the pain and suffering she's caused, her immaturity ruining countless lives, and that not a day goes by that she hasn't thought about any, and all of them. Including Spinel. She looks down at her hands, as though realizing just how dirty they are now. She apologizes to Spinel. She tells her that she is the one that caused all of this, and that her issues are with her, and not with her friends, or the Earth. She begs her to switch the Injector off, that they can talk about this, and leave the Earth in peace.   
  
Spinel listens to this. It's not the heroic speeches that Pink used to make. It takes her aback. She doesn't know what to think until she mentions "her friends." Then, the anger creeps back into her core. And this is when she does it. Spinel looks down at Rose Quartz and tells her that a Diamond can turn the Injector -- her own Injector -- off herself.  
  
Rose looks at the Injector. Then, she turns her head. The other Crystal Gems are watching this entire spectacle unfold. The Garnet is trying to remain stoic, but Spinel can see how she's biting her lower lip. The Amethyst has stopped holding the Garnet, but she is looking at Rose with the same amount of anxiety as before. The human reaches out a hand to towards Rose, a concerned expression on his face, as though he somehow ... understands the turmoil she's experiencing. And Pearl ... the Pearl looks tired. There is fear, and concern, and love there.   
  
Finally, Rose turns back to Spinel, and the Injector.   
  
And she begins to sing.  
  
It is a high-pitched sound, a sharp chime. The glass in the house shatters. And the Injector begins to slow down. Even so, it's taking a toll on Rose. It affects her, this song, this crystalline, cold, perfect tune as she glows a radiant pink, her gem turning around, her tresses disappearing, her dress retreating, and she gets taller, and a little taller.   
  
Pink Diamond stands, facing Spinel, as the Injector's drill stops spinning, and retreats back into the mechanism. She looks powerful, like a Diamond should. But somehow, for all that, she looks out of place. Awkward. Uncomfortable. Like wearing a suit she hadn't for so long. A piece of clothing, a face, a name she thought she'd never have to use again. But Spinel feels an utter lack of pity. "Play Pretend Time" is over. This is the time in the magic act for the revelation.   
  
The ground stops shaking, but the Crystal Gems -- her friends -- are forever changed.   
  
The Amethyst's eyes widen as comically as Spinel's ever could. Frankly, she is impressed. A question is on her lips, as she can't recognize the person in front of her. The human looks even more perplexed, and a little sideswiped. Spinel was right. She realizes they really didn't know who Rose Quartz truly was. The Pearl ... she actually looks away, as though ashamed for her Diamond, or feeling her pain.   
  
The Garnet though ...  
  
The Garnet's glasses fall off of her face. Three eyes glaze over. It's as though she is in the process of being poofed. She glows and writhes, clutching herself ... as a Sapphire and Ruby fall to the ground. Pink Diamond reaches out towards them, with one hand. The Crystal Gems look at Pearl and begin talking. Arguing. The Sapphire is shouting. She's screaming. The Ruby is burning, trying to calm the Sapphire down, but glaring at Pearl and Pink. Pearl just looks away as the Amethyst begins wailing at the turmoil. The human, though, he keeps looking at Pink. Pink turns her arm towards him ... and then lowers it.   
  
Spinel thinks about this entire thing. She's thought about it for quite some time. Rose Quartz, the symbol of freedom, equality, of love, and friendship. The same being that left Spinel on a world to crumble to dust. The symbol of hope for others abandoning the person who regarded her as her only friend.   
  
Spinel punches Pink Diamond in the face. Hard.   
  
She watches the Diamond actually skids back. Spinel can feel it, through her gloved hand. Whatever else Pink is, she is still a Diamond. But when Pink falls, again, to her knees, it isn't because of the force of the physical blow. Spinel's mouth quivers. Tears threaten to course down her treacherous eyes, but she won't let them. Her cheeks are streaked enough with black. She's unmasked the hypocrite.   
  
She doesn't get Shattered. She's not even sure she can Shatter her former friend, even if she wanted to.   
  
No. Pink Diamond gets to live. And everyone that ever mattered to her can finally see her for what she really is.   
  
A liar.  
  
Spinel is vaguely disappointed. Here is the leader of the Crystal Gems, and a Diamond kneeling before her, in utter defeat. But she gains only a momentary pleasure from it. Instead, she turns away. She walks back to the Injector as the Sapphire flees from the scene, as the Ruby blazes after her, as the Amethyst runs the other way, confused and hurt by the group falling apart, as Pearl looks back and forth between Pink and the human with a tormented expression on her face, as the human just shakes his head and walks towards Pink. As Pink cries into the dust, and creates more flowers -- more incriminating pink roses -- in her wake.   
  
She leaps up onto the device. Then, she programs a new set of commands. The Injector begins to hover. It rises into the air. Spinel looks down at the figures as they grow smaller, like little play soldiers. She thought about destroying this planet, but somehow, she's lost the heart to do so. No. She wants this world to know that the person, the being that endangered it, still remains. She thinks about the Garden that Pink left to rot, with her in it, and decides she doesn't want to destroy a world like that. She has to admit, it is a fairly beautiful place. No. She wants the Earth to continue, so that every day, when Pink looks out at what she believes she freed, that she saved, that she isn't the hero she pretended to play, but the villain that endangered the very things she claimed to love. She would no longer have the luxury deceiving herself into believing that she's a good person.   
  
As for Spinel, she's tired of Diamonds on their knees, asking her to play games she can't win, or begging her to spare her new toys. It's time for her to move on, somewhere. Where, she doesn't know.  
  
Just anywhere but here. 


	14. Facet IV: Earth-3

Rose Quartz looks out at the hill again. 

It's been another night in the Burning Room. Most of the days, so far, have been hunting down the Corrupted Gems, poofing them, dispersing them, bubbling them away, and containing them in the Room until ... 

Until she can just do something about them. 

Guilt, a familiar feeling, eats away at Rose Quartz's core. Guilt, remorse, and regret. She watches the vines of her flowers continue to grow, perpetually, on top of the hill. That is the purpose she has infused them with, to keep creating that briar wall like some sort of human fairy-tale. At this point in her existence, however, Rose understands that it's more than entirely possible that she and Gemkind itself, with their attempt at a Colony on Earth, became inspirations for human folklore. For faeries, and gods ...

And monsters.

Six thousand years ago now. That had been a formative period in human civilization. She thinks about it sometimes, like tonight, as she keeps watching her briar wall continue to maintain itself in that spot ontop of the hill. The War would have seemed, to humans, like a battle of goddesses and demons. All conjured weapons, and technologies, and beings grown from the Earth itself, and fire ...

And a piercing, unforgiving Light that she will never be able to purge out of her mind no matter how long she exists.

She just wanted Earth to be free. That was it. Rose just wanted humanity, and all organic life here to continue living. She wanted to free Gems from the caste-system of the Diamonds. She wanted to give Gemkind the idea -- the chance -- to see an alternative where something new could be grown .... even, to borrow an organic function as metaphor, _born_. 

Instead, just as it seemed as though they had finally won ... 

The Corrupting Light.

She'd underestimated how far the other Diamonds would go. Pink Diamond had never been particularly important to the Great Diamond Authority. Earth had just been a small Colony. Between Earth, and its moon, it had been practically nothing. A trial run for a small, petty Diamond. And nothing more. The others wanted Pink out of the way, out of their way. To stop embarrassing them. To stop disrupting their functions. Rose has had six thousand years to ponder her decisions. 

It'd been so clear. Pink would be Shattered, and all operations on Earth permanently disrupted. It would show all Gems the potential of banding together, and cause the Diamonds to be so afraid -- that the Crystal Gems had found a way to surpass their narrow functions -- that they would flee, and sweep the whole thing under the rug: leaving the Crystal Gems and Earth alone, perhaps even banned from travel. 

What she didn't realize was that an attack on one Diamond was an attack on all of them, and their Authority. Even if the other three Diamonds hadn't particularly liked or respected Pink, she was still a Diamond. At the very least, the three wouldn't take any chances, and would use their combined power -- even without Pink's input, without her Song -- to obliterate the problem entirely.

No one had died, then. But something else, something Rose never thought possible, was born that day the War ended. 

Corruption.

And Rose has spent the following thousands of years trying to repair the Gems whose minds had been so warped, so damaged, from the Light from which she just barely protected Pearl and Garnet and herself. She's placed them in her Fountain. She's attempted to even reach their minds, to navigate their emotions, to guide them back. It's gotten to the point where she does nothing but stand over them, when she has to dissipate their malformed, horrific projections generated by the spots of Corruption on their gem facets, and weep.   
  
Rose has gotten very good at crying these past millennia. Her friends. Her subjects. She did this to them. She didn't mean to do this to them. It was the last thing she ever wanted. No one deserved this. Not even ... the other three Diamonds. Nobody. Especially not ...  
  
She can feel Pearl walking up behind her. Rose doesn't say anything, but just continues to look at the briar wall as it keeps enclosing that particular spot on the hill. She feels Pearl attempt to wrap her arms around her wide form, burying her face into her dress. Rose takes one hand and places it on Pearl's. Pearl is now the only one that understands the entirety of the situation -- of her failure -- or more of it than anyone else can possibly do.   
  
Quietly, past dusk, Rose thinks about Pink's loyal soldiers. Her subjects. She thinks about the Crystal Gems. She thinks about her Lion, and how she resurrected him from death. She thinks about Bismuth, and the terrible lesson she didn't learn from her. She thinks about the Diamonds. She thinks about Pink's first Pearl.   
  
She thinks about ...  
  
Pearl lets go of her, and comes to her side. This time, Pearl takes both of her hands. Thankfully, tonight, Rose can't hear that laughing. That hateful, gurgling, cackling. Or the screams. That is Rose's greatest burden. That is what she ... that is one of Pink's greatest sins. Sometimes, after a session where she roams the world, even after all the human lovers and friends she has to watch grow old and die, when she fails -- again -- to heal the Corrupted Gems, she wishes that her Shattering had actually been real. Deep down, in a place that Garnet can't see with her greatest visions, or Amethyst can't touch with her naivety and blissful ignorance of that time Rose is so grateful she had never seen, Rose Quartz knows she deserves that -- and worse. Perhaps, in retrospect, Bismuth had the right idea the first time, perhaps ...  
  
But Pearl. Pearl doesn't know everything, but she can see that. Pearl's hands tighten around hers, and look up into her eyes. It's been so many millennia, but she's still there, even when Rose isn't always. Rose smiles, blinking away more tears. No matter what happens, Rose knows she doesn't deserve Pearl. Pearl would find that thought utterly alien, a funny pun when she considers what they must be like to the humans here, even in Beach City, but it's true. It's similar to how she doesn't deserve Amethyst's trust, or Garnet -- the true symbol of everything she strived so hard to achieve, her uniqueness, her Fusion, a whole new form of living truth and love -- and her loyalty.   
  
She made a beautiful story for herself. And for others. Some might, even now, call it a lie. A falsehood that the thing entrapped in the briar prison on the hill calls out by its very existence. She's trapped in that beautiful lie, she's imprisoned herself from the truth, even more than the ... creature immobilized by eternal flowers. But that is a delusion as well. Those flowers, and their thorns won't last forever.   
  
Hopefully, one day, Rose Quartz will find the answer.   
  
Her, or someone better than she ever was.   
  
Pearl takes her hands, and gently guides her away. Rose lets her, even as she never looks away from the hill, an apology always at the edges of her lips.  
  
*  
  
Garnet doesn't want Steven to go.  
  
She's seen very few probabilities where this mission turns out well, for anyone. Least of all, if Steven exposes himself to ... this.  
  
But the briar wall has been dying for quite some time, even after they had reopened Rose's Fountain to heal Amethyst's cracked gem. The waters had been the only things keeping Rose's Wall on the Hill alive, supplementing the power she generated to keep them going, to keep ..._ it_ contained.   
  
The withering had started some years back, after Rose had ... gone for the last time. There were still enough layers to keep it in, even muffling that same demented, horrible laughter. Steven has grown since then, even more than Garnet herself has anticipated. Already, he's been tapping into his powers, inherited from his mother, more fully. It isn't so much a question of Future Vision in as much as she believes in Steven -- and will continue to do so -- as the Fusion of Rose and Greg's love, and the culmination of himself.   
  
But he's been having dreams. Pearl had tried to dismiss them, back in the day, as nightmares from all the video games he plays, and the anime he watches. Pearl, even more than Garnet, has wanted Steven as far away from this particular mission as possible. 

Even with the Fountain restored, and its path to the Hill continuing, the withering had been enough to weaken the barriers.   
  
For the laughter to be heard again.  
  
The people of Beach City consider it a haunted place, where not even the most daring children will go. Indeed, for all of his boasting, Ronaldo Fryman stays as far away from the wood as he can. Apparently, all it had taken was the shadow of a demonic ... clown through peering into the gaps between thorns to make him run for his life before the Crystal Gems had needed to intercede.   
  
Amethyst hasn't seen ... it, either. But after she and Pearl sat down, and explained what it was centuries ago, and Rose made it especially clear to avoid that place, even Amethyst knew better than to risk it. And very few things scare Amethyst.  
  
Steven calls it the Jester. His dreams show the thing hunting him in the wood, laughing, jumping, hiding, coming at him with a scythe. The dreams have become too vivid. And he always sees it coming after him. No one else in particular. Just him. This, combined with seeing the briar wall failing, and hearing that sound again is enough to make the Crystal Gems try to deal with ... the Jester.  
  
There is already a path forming through the briars. Despite the ambivalence of their first encounters, Garnet is glad that Steven has managed to convince Lapis Lazuli and Peridot to come with them. In addition to the stream Rose created, they are close to the beach, and the water there. Lapis will have the power to call on it once the wood is completely broken down. And Peridot has her influence over metal. She is going to need it, as it might give them that edge they didn't possess millennia ago when they first faced the Jester.  
  
Steven is smart. He's figured out that the Jester is a Corrupted Gem. But there's been more things that Steven had to know before Garnet would even think about taking him along. They had all sat at the house, including Lapis and Peridot, as both Garnet and Pearl recounted their encounter with the Jester.   
  
Long ago, like the other Monsters as Steven and the other humans knew them, the Jester had been a Gem. She had not been a Gem that Garnet had seen before as either Sapphire or Ruby, but her hue had been unmistakable. She had been another one of Pink Diamond's subjects. She had come down, on an Injector -- a sleeker, more powerful one -- and wielded a Rejuvenator. That scythe, when it hit a Gem reset them. Rose had warned them away from it. This Gem, whoever she was, had been furious. She hadn't been with Homeworld forces, mowing them down as well as many of the Crystal Gems. In particular, she came after Rose before ....  
  
The Corrupting Light. That attack had blasted the entire planet. Rose had barely managed to drag her, and Pearl beneath either arm before the Diamonds' attack engulfed everything and all Gems around it.   
  
Including the rogue Gem.  
  
Throughout the centuries, and millennia, Rose and the Crystal Gems had been able to defeat and bubble the Corrupted Gems, containing a majority of them under the Temple in the Burning Room. But not this one.   
  
This one had eluded them. It had managed to attack them from the shadows, terrifying generations of humans. To this day, Beach City has a strange fear of clowns. The Gems themselves had ... forgotten themselves many a time when that scythe, more often than not, managed to hit them. Only Rose seemed to be able to keep up with the Jester, and its twisted limbs. And they had learned to keep it away from humans.  
  
They enter the wood as the briars are crumbling, being hacked down, and sliced from something within it. It's screaming. Steven looks ... he looks scared. Garnet wants nothing more than to turn around, and tell him to stay with Greg back in the Temple. As much as he's helped them defeat the other Corrupted Gems, this one is different. This one actually gives Garnet nightmares as well. Pearl, for her part, is in lockstep with Steven. Garnet can see her constantly keeping an eye on him. There is a hard set to her gaze that she ordinarily doesn't have.   
  
Steven's come a long way, and especially since he's been utilizing his Healing Spit. Centipeetle, the former Nephrite commander, had _just_ ... almost regained her sentience because of him, and the care he'd taken to bonding with her. Even though the healing didn't take, she was still cognizant of Steven when they reunited her with her crew in the remnants of her ship. Steven means well. He wants to help this Gem, but ... at least they told him about the risks.   
  
It's why he's had Connie stay behind. She argued for a long time about it, even fighting with Pearl who'd given her the express order not to be here when this happens. It took Steven, promising they would come back, that they would help this Gem, to believe in him, to get her to calm down: and even now she is at the Temple. Waiting. Stevonnie won't do well against ... the Jester.  
  
Steven looks in Garnet's direction, catching her eyes. He seems to swallow the fear, and nod. For all of Garnet's anxiety, she's proud of how far he has come. The sounds of the Jester are getting louder now as they go into the wood, as the sun shines more brightly, as the vines and brambles fall.   
  
This is the heart of it.  
  
Just as Rose had failed to heal the Corrupted Gems and had to contain them, so too did she fail to capture the Jester. The Injector is still there. When the Corrupting Light hit, it had disrupted the mechanism, destroying its gem-like surface, causing it to explode. The rusted, shattered remnants of it remain, the twisted thing headless and empty. Its poison had stopped going into the ground.   
  
It had gone elsewhere.   
  
And then, the laughter starts again. It is a cold, piercing, cackling. It's followed by screaming. A horrid, screeching sound like a Gem in the process of having its core being Shattered. Steven has already summoned his Shield, and the other Gems have their weapons out.   
  
That's when they see it.  
  
When they see ... her.   
  
The Jester stands on the remnants of the Injector. Now that sunlight is shining into the wood on the hill, they can see it clearly again. Its eyes are empty slits surrounded by slashes of what looks like weaping black makeup. Its hair ragged, writhing, pig-tail tendrils. Metal, from the Injector, fused into its limbs: especially its carapace. The scythe, its handle rusted and blotched, melted and fused into its arm, twirls around with crimson light once red. Its over large hand is a series of claws, and it's dripping ... dripping with pink poison. Wherever it touches the ground, grass and vines shrivel and die. This is one reason why they couldn't bubble her, then. The Corrupting Light, as they explained to Steven, had destroyed the Injector and obliterated the Gem's mind and damaged her own core, fusing them -- in a parody of Fusion -- together. Any organic matter this Monster touches will die. And any Gem that gets close enough to her, can and will, have their memories reset.   
  
The Jester sees them. For a moment, under the cover of the remaining trees, its dented, red upside down heart gem pulsates in the shade. Then, its eyes narrow on Steven. And it starts to howl. It begins to wail. Steven's eyes seem to shrink into his head in absolute terror. The Jester is a patchwork of metal, cracks, mould, and jerking movements but it scuttles towards them. It leaps. Steven finds his resolve, his chin jutting out. He told them that this Gem had specifically sought out his Mom, like Jasper, and he knows he needs to deal with this. And they will help him. They will not leave his side.  
  
But then, something truly horrible happens. As it leaps towards them, its scythe, its twisted body, limbs akimbo, stretching out endlessly into forever, movements all random and chaotic, a maelstrom of violence, it shrieks.   
  
_You left me!_ It wails again after thousands of years, bringing back all of Garnet's suppressed nightmares from before Rose had finally managed to trap her here at the site of her attempted destruction of the Earth before the end of the War. _You left me!_ It roars in mindless, vicious hate.   
  
_You left me! _  
  
Then, the Crystal Gems -- original and new -- form ranks around Steven. Steven swallows and holds his ground. He tells the Jester, in a shaking, but earnest voice, that they will help her. That she's been found again.   
  
And that, is when the battle truly begins. 


	15. Facet V: Confrontation

Spinel sizes him up as they come to the Kindergarten.

Her long time nemeses, the Crystal Gems -- or what's left of them -- surround him, the human with the gem, as she hangs back, and lets them take in the stage such as it is. Spinel's been pretty accommodating, all things considered, given how their last real confrontation had gone down. 

It's cute, really. The other Crystal Gems think they are going to take her on, as a team, again. As if this has helped them, in the past. Spinel wants to laugh at Sapphire inside of Garnet. The problem with Future Vision, even with the Ruby giving her other choices, and other possibilities if she wants to be charitable about it, is that it's predictable. Garnet is too logical, too straightforward. Spinel recalls years of outsmarting Sapphires with ... the person that used to be her friend, how she herself pointed that out to Spinel, which allowed them to get away with pranks before even the other Diamonds figured it out, though they always paid for it later. 

This is the knowledge that paid off for Spinel in the long run. She gave them a timeline. A timetable. Fourteen years is enough for a human to have a basic idea of what is going on in the world, even if they aren't mature enough to truly understand the details, or process the emotions involved with the specifics. The way Spinel figures it, it's about Pink Diamond's mentality level anyway.

Sometimes a gem needs time to get processed, cut, refined, and come into its own. 

It doesn't matter that the Crystal Gems might already know what she has going on in this Kindergarten. In ... both of them. She informs them, in fact, long after she's pressed the remote in her hand, that the Injectors -- all those old Injectors they and Rose Quartz left to rust -- have been repaired and are ... currently in the process of releasing their payloads into the soil. Really, Garnet should have seen this coming. After all, Spinel had time after they destroyed her own Injector all those years ago, to figure out how to repair the others. 

They have no choice, unless they want to endanger this strange, weird, stupid little world of theirs. They have to split up, a term in human media -- films -- that usually ends badly for all involved, but makes an entertaining, if somewhat gruesome spectacle nonetheless. 

So they split. The boy even tells them to go. That he will deal with her. That he will "handle" her. 

Spinel does laugh at this. It's too funny not to. Garnet and Pearl stay behind, as the other Gems leave. Especially the Peridot, and the Lapis. Oh, Spinel has been aware of them. She's been watching them all this entire time. It doesn't even matter that they _knew_ she was watching them. In fact, she's been counting on it.   
  
She has especially been watching the boy. Steven Universe. 

That was part of their deal. The rules of their game. 

Of Spinel's game.

There have been a few modifications, of course. Of the game. Spinel has found the Monsters, the Corrupted Gems, herself. She's ... bubbled a few of them. She doesn't do it often. In fact, she's only done it these past couple of years. Most of the time, she just lures them into spots, and areas with humans where the Crystal Gems feel compelled to stop them. The Corrupted Gems aren't much fun for Spinel, honestly. They lack the minds, and the attention span for some of her better performances. They are, frankly, wasted on them.   
  
The Amethyst stays behind too. The runt of the collection. It's sad, really. She is pretty cute, for a defective Gem, but aren't all Gems that no longer serve a useful purpose defective, in the end?

Steven Universe summons his shield. The ... human girl is with him too. Oh yes. That has been an interesting development. A Gem-Human Hybrid can Fuse with another human. Spinel can see how other Homeworld Gems would find this repulsive, even horrifying. As if they could talk, given the Artificial Fusions that sometimes scuttle up from the Earth. Spinel even told them that, for free, just to see the look on Garnet's face: these abominations to everything she loved, and fought for along with her beloved Rose Quartz. 

Steven Universe and Connie Mahaswaran hold hands in an absolutely adorable way, and a pink -- a familiar pink glow -- envelops them. Stevonnie, tall, and androgynous for the human species stares Spinel down with Steven's shield, and Rose Quartz's sword given to the human Connie. Spinel whistles. She admits to them that they are impressive.   
  
Stevonnie asks Spinel why she is doing this. Why is Spinel doing any of this?  
  
Spinel finds herself admitting, to both them, and herself, that is a fair question. She remembers her other function as a playmate of Pink Diamond. She decides that she's not in too much of a rush. She's going to tell them a story.   
  
Before the other Crystal Gems interfere, that's when ... the drills begin to rumble. There are roars, and snarls in the nearby ravines. Just enough of them. 

Corrupted Gems. 

They are approaching them. Spinel looks at the other Crystal Gems, assessing them, and the situation. She tells them that they should probably provide cover for Stevonnie. She can tell it disturbs them that she knows their name. Stevonnie repeats what Steven said. That she can "handle" her. The Crystal Gems, those three, look at her and back at Stevonnie. They tell them to be careful, especially Garnet.   
  
Then, they run off as the Corrupted Gems attack them as well, as the drills keep doing their work.   
  
Spinel explains that this story is a private performance only, but that Steven gets to have his plus one. She's feeling particularly generous. 

She sways around them. No doubt, at this point, the Gems warned them about how she moves, and her scythe. The Diamonds only know how many times she had struck them with it, and how long it took them to gradually restore their memories.   
  
Stevonnie manages to avoid her blows as she tells them the story. She tells them that a few decades ago, she had gotten a transmission from Homeworld about the destruction of Pink Diamond, and the defeat of the Rebels that did it to her. She explains how she sat in their garden, as she was her entertainer, and her friend, for millennia until that rogue, almost accidental commemoration transmission came in.   
  
So she'd come to Earth, to find any vestige of the Rebels that Shattered her friend, and the species of humans she had been so fond of protecting ... so that she could destroy them. Instead, she found the Crystal Gems ... and the revelation that not only had the Gems survived, albeit most of them were Corrupted, but that Rose Quartz herself had also lived ... until fairly recently. By over a decade or so.   
  
She was gone, Spinel had been given to understand. The Gems had managed to destroy her Injector, but she had been watching this planet and its goings for longer. She had not actually been at the Injector when the Crystal Gems took it out. She had gone to their Temple instead. To their house. To their home.   
  
By the time they'd come back, she had been keeping the human adult, Greg, company, along with a small bundle of flesh surrounding a Rose Quartz gemstone. She remembers the terror on Greg's face, and the complete naivety of the human infant. She even recalls the baby trying to grab at her nose. She admits to Stevonnie, as the Fusion brings up their shield to protect them against a two-fisted wallop haymaker, that she thought about eliminating them then, and there.   
  
But that just felt so ... anticlimactic. And, in the end, had Spinel done that, she wouldn't have had time to do anything else. To discover what the real situation truly is.  
  
It'd been a lark. Spinel decided, then, to spare everyone. Even the baby. Especially the baby. If what the Gems said were true, and the baby really wasn't Rose attempting to hide in a new form, she would see it for herself. She would spare everyone, that day, and in exchange when that baby came of age ... in about a decade and four years, she would ascertain what he truly was, and they would all get their answers.   
  
Of course, the Gems agreed to it ... with no intention of letting it get that far. 

Spinel left Steven alone, as the Crystal Gems hunted her throughout the years. But they could never ... really ... find ... her. Again, she would choose the most unlikeliest places to hide. Hide and Seek had been her favourite game with Pink Diamond, after all. And Spinel had been excellent at hiding.   
  
But she wasn't as good as Pink, apparently.

Spinel tells Stevonnie not to bother waiting for their friends to come back. She explains how she had hunted her own Corrupted Gems. Usually, she steered the Crystal Gems into dealing with them, especially when they came after her. It helped when she moved them into human settlements, like Beach City. But today, she had bubbled a few of them ... just enough so that if or when someone attempted to meddle with the drills she reactivated, their bubbles would burst and ...

Well, suffice to say, the Crystal Gems -- the original three and others -- will be busy for a while.   
  
She continues to attack Stevonnie, assaulting them, cackling, explaining how she watched Steven develop from a loser into actually mastering some skill. But she had also been busy finding out more about his mother. About Rose Quartz. How Rose could heal things, could grow organic life ... and she began to realize the ultimate joke that had been played on her. That in hunting for the person who destroyed her friend ... she found her friend, her best friend after all ... How she hadn't died and left Spinel alone, but left Spinel entirely.   
  
And now, she knows the truth: that Rose Quartz had been Pink Diamond after all.

The shock of it, and her attack drives Stevonnie backwards. They begin to distort. Stevonnie tells themselves to hold together. But it's too much. Spinel says she would attack them with the Rejuvenator, but that they might ... forget themselves, and the secrets in their gem. And she can't have that. She has to know. She has to know if the son is the mother, or if the son remembers his mother's memories.   
  
All so that she can know if Pink Diamond remembers what she did to her. All that she can know if he can know what she did.   
  
All so that Spinel can finally, and properly, have her revenge.   
  
And as Steven splits from Connie, Spinel lunges for him, slaughter in her eyes, just as the other Crystal Gems come back for her ....


	16. Facet V: Family

To this day, Spinel doesn't understand how it all happened. She does remember, however, how it started.

"Play Pretend."

Spinel almost didn't admit it to herself, but there was one moment -- in that Garden, their Garden -- where she thought Pink was going to leave her. The signs had been there. Pink's distance, her annoyance, the obvious discomfort her form carried within it whenever they still interacted ... She's glad, however, that Pink made another decision. The Diamonds really didn't pay attention to a pink-coloured Pebble, one way or another. For beings that were supposed to be the ultimate in Gemkind, they often failed to see what was hiding right in front of them. 

And it's just as well Spinel accompanied Pink.

She remembers how ... boring the Moon was. Juggling, and pranks, and improv could only get a Gem so far before. It annoyed Pearl, but honestly Spinel never really gave a shard about Pearl. The first Pearl had been nicer, she thought at the time. She was sure of it. At first, Pink attempted to deal with a lot of ... administration. Even now, after all this time, that word makes Spinel's head spin. She still thinks that administration is another term for boring. She recalls having to entertain herself, and not play japes on Pearl, in those early days until even Pink herself got bored of the tedium of it all.

Even so, Spinel's still impressed that Pearl was the one who suggested another game of "Pretend." 

That's how they got here. To this place. To this point.

At first, it was amusing looking at all the new Gems being created from the Kindergartens. Sometimes, when Pink was still Playing Pretend, and being that Rose Quartz, she would encourage Spinel to spend time among her subjects while she and Pearl went elsewhere. It bothered Spinel a bit, at the time, but she actually shrugged it off. Pearls were always meant to be with their owners, their Diamonds, and she remembers the first Pearl enough. Spinel knew, then, that she was Pink's only friend. A Pearl, whatever they did together, didn't count. Heck, the first Pearl apparently got to see Pink juggle: something that Spinel showed her how to do. At the time, Spinel thought no one could beat that kind of dedication. 

So, as a Pebble, she would bounce around, watching the Gems work. Observing them supervise each other. Sometimes, she caused problems. Nothing major or life threatening, of course. But they were entertained by the jumping stone, always asking if there were others like her. Not this one Jasper, though. She got annoyed with her. A big one. She tried even kick her at one point. The nerve of her, really. If she'd only known who she was, and to whom she belonged to.

Pink, for her part, did scold her a bit, and told her not to be mean to the Gems. Spinel had to admit that she eventually dreaded going back to the Moon, even when they brought more Agates, Sapphires, and other Gems with them. It felt a bit more like Homeworld.   
  
Homeworld. Another word for boring.

No. Spinel actually liked the humans more. It's true that she and Pink had seen some worlds together in their time, with different organic lifeforms. Some of them even made it into their Garden. Sometimes, even now, Spinel wonders what's happened to their Garden since they left. But the humans dressed themselves in hides from other lifeforms, sometimes even worked with minerals too. Spinel really enjoyed, well ... messing with them. Some thought her a fairy, or a demon. Most of the time "Rose Quartz" told her to behave, with an especial side-eye from Pearl. But her friend was never really angry with her. Spinel admits to herself, even now, that "Rose Quartz" laughed much more than Pink Diamond ever did.

They played "Dual Persona" or "Secret Identity" for a while. Especially Spinel. On her own, she would revert to her real form and stretch herself out. She felt so ... compact being a Pebble all the time. It was harder for Pink. Spinel knows that now. She had to maintain appearances, to her fellow Diamonds, when what she really wanted to do was maintain her associations with the other Gems under her command, and the humans. She wanted to grow things. Make things. Sometimes Spinel even gave her suggestions, and more often than not she even asked her, and Pearl, for opinions.  
  
And then ...   
  
Spinel noticed that while Pink laughed more, there was a sadness there. It was different though, from the isolation of Homeworld or even the Moon. She and Pearl had seen the designs. This world would be hollowed out and changed into a Colony. All mineral life would be excellent, but organic life ... the ecosystem would be turned inside out, and all life on Earth, it wouldn't exist anymore. A disappointing magician's trick. Seeing that, after seeing the silly humans made Spinel ... feel funny. Not in a hilarious way, but in an unsettled manner. As if she hadn't manifested properly from her gem. Organic beings die, it's true, but so many of them ...  
  
Blue Diamond was clueless, of course. She just took a few humans and transplanted them into a complex, like they did with some of the other lifeforms that Pink liked from other soon-to-be Colonies. Blue and Yellow didn't listen to Pink. They didn't respect her. Spinel knows they never respected her. Spinel was made to be Pink's entertainment, her friend, and while she knows every Gem has a purpose in the Authority, it never sat right that Pink was treated ... not like a Diamond. She wasn't the only one. Pearl didn't look pleased either. She remembers exchanging looks with her, and it was one of those few times they really agreed on something.   
  
That's when Pink as a Rose Quartz was really gone, not even she was "Shattered."   
  
That's when Rose Quartz was born.  
  
It got interesting fast. The Gems on Earth had these really fascinating quirks. A Bismuth that hated "upper-crusts." A smart-alleck Jasper. Amethysts that misbehaved almost as much as Spinel did. But they were all friends, well most of them. Others towed the line and went with the Great Diamond Authority. She tended to go among the Gems and figure out who was what, and report back to Rose. That's what she began to really call herself, though back then she still answered as Pink.   
  
Then ... they played at War. She and Pink played War Games before, with figurines and sometimes things she would animate. But nothing ....  
  
Nothing prepared Spinel for what was really going to happen.  
  
Those games had been just that. Games.   
  
Spinel remained in her Pebble form. This was important. If the other Diamonds had any inkling that she was here, and Pink's Spinel, the entire Rebellion -- Rose's ruse -- would be exposed, and bad things -- somehow worse things -- would happen. She didn't mind knocking a few heads. It helped that she wasn't really a Pebble, and hit hard with springs that no one could really see. Spinel can't lie to herself, changing briefly in the shadows, and punching that self-righteous Jasper in the face made her day. She still thinks she could have poofed her, but Pink made it clear that she was not to ever expose her full capacities or strength: neither to Homeworld, nor to the bulk of the Crystal Gems. That's what the Rebels were getting called, and they embraced that name like a badge of honour. 

Most of the time, Spinel had been in charge of getting the humans to safety, getting them out of the way of the worst of the fighting. She ... remembers other things, from then. Things that, even now, she'd rather forget. She supposes that, after all of this, humans believed that inanimate had souls partially because of the Gems ... but also due to her, and her constantly advising them to leave, or find better places.   
  
It'd make her proud if ... well ... things had gone another way.   
  
The Jaspers and Amethysts, even the Rubies in their cause ... and Spinel had long since lost the confusion of knowing which cause was which, taught them all how to fight. Privately, Spinel utilized her long limbs and flexibility to her advantage. It was amazing, really, just how an acrobatic, adaptable being -- a glorified Gem toy like her -- could actually do some damage when she applied herself, but only sparingly.   
  
It had been interesting. Gems had begun to Fuse, and not just for operations, or their jobs. Spinel remembers the day she met Garnet. Sapphire had been part of Blue Diamond's Court, to help bring in Rose Quartz, and she had a retinue of Rubies. But one Ruby managed to mess up an entire precognitive trajectory. It turns out, prophecy has its limits, while idiocy is infinite. Spinel thought this was absolutely hilarious. It took a while, but Garnet went from being all gangly and pretty, to using her Future Vision to help her fight and move. Spinel helped out to that extent, when Bismuth -- their weapon smith turned away from building and maintenance -- wasn't.   
  
A lot of things went down. People were lost. Again, Spinel doesn't like to think about those times, and she suspects that Rose kept her away from the worst of it. It only partially made her feel better that Pearl was there, with her. At least Pearl got really good at fighting, and tactics, and strategy. Spinel was the secret ally, the spy, and the instigator. She actually managed to sabotage quite a few Homeworld presences. Garnet turned out to be fun, as well. She had an ... understated humour that slowly developed over time. Spinel always suspected that she knew more about her than she let on, and it was fun to play that game. Spinel loved, still loves, Guessing Games.   
  
And then ... there was the final Play Pretend.   
  
It was bad. Bismuth was gone. A lot of the others too. The fighting was still continuing. But then Rose ... Pink ... no, Rose now had a plan. Before this plan was enacted, she told Spinel that she is Rose now, that they were going to play a trick on the Diamonds, and they would be left alone forever. Spinel was a bit miffed when she said that Pearl would help her, but she was also to remain close by.  
  
The bait and switch of the non-sentient gem was brilliant. Pearl actually did a decent shape-shifting job. It made it look like the Crystal Gems won, even if seeing just the illusion of Pink Diamond get Shattered on the palanquin really ... hit Spinel's core hard.   
  
But that was before the Light.  
  
Spinel remembers jumping onto Rose's shoulder as she dragged Garnet and Pearl under her shield.   
  
It had been a long couple of millennia after that. Rose Quartz still smiled, but there was always a tinge of pain behind it. Of regret. It hurt Spinel to see her like that. Eventually, Spinel dropped the ruse and showed Garnet her real form. There was no point in hiding it now, that the world was abandoned by Homeworld. The Rebellion was supposed to be about living the way you wanted to be after all, wasn't it?   
  
They journeyed a lot. Even after revealing she was a runaway toy, just like Pearl was a rogue Pearl herself, Spinel preferred to mask herself as a Pebble at times. They dealt with Corrupted Gems turned into Monsters. Certainly, when she had the mind to, her adoption of the scythe that Bismuth made for some other Gem suited her extremely well based on her agility and unorthodox dance movements.   
  
The highlight of those times, aside from freaking out humans, or alternatively entertaining them as a Play Pretend Puppet when the Gems decided to be a traveling show was finding the Munchkin, as she called her. She always knew that the small hole in the Kindergarten would produce a small, cute Amethyst. Spinel loves Amethyst. The Gem was a natural copycat, and Spinel liked to imitate a lot of things herself. She found herself spending more time with Amethyst, by Rose's own encouragement as she and Pearl became closer. She was the entertainment still, when they were building and doing maintenance on the Temple to house the bubbled Gems. Sometimes Rose would leave on her own accord, and come back with a human, sometimes a male, or a female, or some other variation. Pearl would get annoyed, but eventually warmed up to it. Garnet would talk about the importance of love. Amethyst was just intrigued.   
  
Spinel didn't care. Sometimes she met them too. Rose still smiled at her. They would sometimes play, but they talked more too. Eventually, Spinel realized it was all right for her to travel as well, and she did. She went all over the place as time went on, and human beings developed. She hoped that Rose would learn how to help the Crystal Gems and even the other Gems left behind from the Corrupting Light. She hoped that Rose would find peace with the friends they gathered. Spinel doesn't know when she realized she didn't begrudge her other friends, that they were actually kind of her friends too.   
  
She really just wanted to see Rose smile again without the pain behind her eyes.   
  
Then, one day, she was gone.  
  
She'd been away for a while putting on a comedy act, and got caught up in it. Her ... calls, from Rose became more sporadic. Pearl mentioned something about her seeing a human male named Greg Universe. The last time she and Rose spoke, the latter told her that she loved him, that she was planning to make something new, something special with him, that she wanted to share that with the Crystal Gems. She told Spinel that she would love it, knowing how she actually found humans amusing and cute. To please help her with it when the time came. Spinel joked about how she became a Rose Quartz, and now a human? Rose told her that she's glad she took her along with them, that she was an excellent Crystal Gem ... that she loved her. Spinel isn't sure that Rose ... ever told her that._ Ever_.   
  
She should have seen it coming.   
  
Spinel didn't know what to think about the squalling human with Rose's gem in his belly. It hit her hard. A clown, like her, is supposed to laugh. To smile. All of the Gems took it in different ways. Garnet seemed sad, but celebrated it as a new kind of Fusion. Amethyst was wondering where Rose went, but seemed curious about the boy. Pearl was ... Spinel could only imagine. But Pearl actually stayed, with the boy, and his father, and the other Gems.  
  
Spinel couldn't.  
  
Spinel cried for days. She tried to put up a brave face, and be funny, but knowing ... _knowing_ Rose was gone hurt beyond anything she could imagine. She felt angry, and betrayed. Pink ... Rose ... always thought so impulsively. She was both impressed by this latest, and last stunt, and utterly devastated. The Ultimate Play Pretend. But Spinel knows, now, that if you pretend for too long, that lie -- that story -- can, and will become real. That is the punchline. But Spinel couldn't pretend, at that time, to be anything other than a crying clown.   
  
The other Gems understood when she left. She couldn't face that child, whatever, or whoever he is now.   
  
But she wasn't gone as long as she had anticipated.  
  
She came back, a year or so later, to Beach City. To the Temple. To the house. They welcomed her back, with open arms. Spinel missed them. Amethyst wouldn't let her go. She wonders if that's what Rose felt like, with her, all of those years.   
  
And then there was Steven.

Steven Universe. They explained to her that he was his own Gem. Spinel knows this. She doesn't see Rose in his eyes, beyond some family resemblance. She did her job well. Rose had always been good at creating, and cultivating life. The boy kept grabbing at her arms too. At her pigtails. She liked making faces at him, like Amethyst was already doing. And he would laugh whenever she juggled. Just like his Mom.   
  
Spinel decided to stay, and see what would happen to him. They played games together. He showed him how to do handstands. She told him stories, except for anything to do with the Diamonds. She wanted him to know nothing about that. She knows Rose would have wanted it that way. And they watch television together, everything except for Little Butler ... as that is a show between Greg and Amethyst, or it was until she had to punch Amethyst in the face when she walked in on her imitating ... turning into ...   
  
But they talked about that. Greg is nice enough, and generally goes off on his own, trusting his son to them. Really, it was just convenient that she knew humans better than all of them, even Rose. Playing Jack in the Box for Steven didn't really get old either.   
  
And they really like watching cartoons together. She still insists, to this very day, after her stint in Vaudeville, that some brothers or a set of them, saw her one day in her travels and made all those rubber-hose animations based on her. Just like the prehistoric humans, and their animated rock spirits ... Spinel is just an inspiration to everyone.   
  
Time passed. One day, they were on the Beach. Steven had long learned how to speak. She remembers him, turning to look at her, reaching his hand out. He looked so much like his mother. He asked her, then, if she wanted to be his friend.   
  
Spinel knows how sappy it was. She knows how she must have teared up. How her core melted. How she had to keep from sobbing. She took that dear little boy's hands in her giant ones, and said they were already friends.   
  
But they were more than friends. Garnet and her knowing glances. Pearl and her attention to detail and making sure everyone was organized and all right. Amethyst and her carefree ways. Even Greg and his impromptu visits, and really good music.   
  
And Steven is always learning, and meeting new people. And the humans are interesting too. Spinel especially likes Ronaldo, as pranking him makes her feel the most fulfilled than she has in a long time.   
  
But all that said, once, she thought she was made to have only one friend. That her existence was predicated on entertaining a single being. But Spinel now has more than one friend, or a whole group of friends. Spinel has people that value her for more than what she does, but for who she is. In the end, Spinel has more than friends. She has an entire family. 


	17. Facet V: Reunion

They meet just outside of Little Homeworld. 

Steven watches everyone sitting on the large pink picnic blanket. At first, he had been worried about choosing that colour, all things considered. But after he and Pearl, and some of the others talked about it, they realized that not only is it his colour too, but it'd do no good to deny that it has been a part of their lives. That it shaped them. That it helped, for better or worse, make them who they are now. 

It's been an ongoing tradition these past two years. They meet under the large tree, allowing them to see the walls, and the rotating windmill of the tower of Little Homeworld. It is almost finished now thanks to Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth's efforts. At first, it'd just been the core Crystal Gems and Steven, the ones that knew Rose Quartz -- and Pink Diamond -- personally. Bismuth had been, as she is today, a part of that. But over time, Steven had invited the Crystal Gem Rebels, and the Homeworld forces that served Pink Diamond as well.  
  
Pearl provided food, though the people of Beach City helped out too. They knew enough to realize how important this is, to their usual saviours, but also some of their oldest friends. At first, it was dealing with the uncorrupted Gems, and having a Crystal Gem reunion of a kind. It'd been talking about where they were, what they would do now, and where they would be. Some of those early meetings led to Little Homeworld being made, as the Gems that served Rose Quartz were still leery of going back to Homeworld, still remembering the atrocities committed against them, and the promises of Rose Quartz to have a free world of their own despite the peace now lying between the Great Diamond Authority and themselves. But the former Homeworld forces, particularly Pink Diamond's subjects, most of them didn't want to leave Earth either. Too much time had passed, and some still remembered being abandoned under the Corrupting Light. A few planned to go back, eventually, but not anytime soon, and isn't as though there is any rush one way or another. 

But this year, is a different occasion. 

Amethyst has gone somewhere with Steven's Dad, while Garnet has decided on some alone time -- while wishing Steven all the best. Pearl, however, she's here. Again, she and Bismuth have their reasons: more in some ways than their love for Steven. Peridot and Lapis remain in Little Homeworld, along with the uncorrupted Gems that aren't already roaming around Beach City, or the world. 

There aren't that many of them here, on the picnic blanket, and Steven wonders just how many of them are going to ingest food at all. Bismuth seems to have gotten the hang of -- and interest in -- it. Even Eye-Ball is, well, eyeing some of the snacks on the plates. Pearl won't have anything, and Steven's not going to pressure her one way or another. Pearl sits beside him on one side, while Bismuth sits on the other. Eye-Ball is near Pearl, and occasionally looks back and forth, tentatively at Steven and her. He knows Pearl still isn't completely comfortable with the Ruby after the space incident, and to the Ruby's credit, she looks fairly embarrassed as well.   
  
It's the other three at this meeting, at this reunion, that really put Pearl on edge though. 

Pink Pearl, the name that Steven uses to differentiate his mother's first Pearl from ... his Pearl, from his friend, from essentially his other mother, eyes the blanket, the food, the grass, the tree, the tower, anything other than here. The cracks on the side of her face where her other eye used to be makes Steven's heart ache. He doesn't know everything about what happened, but he knows enough.   
  
Jasper is there too. It had taken some doing, but after several invitations on Steven's part the former Homeworld soldier ... his mother's former soldier, sits across from him. She looks a little furtive, her eyes narrowed. But she's quiet. Steven can still see the scars of Corruption on her projected body. The horns actually suit her in a way. Every time she looks at him, though, it's almost as though they are back at the Fountain, and she wants to sink right back into the water away from everyone.   
  
And then, there is the figure right next to her. She's seated next to Pink Pearl. It makes sense given that both of them came from Homeworld at Steven's request, with Blue, Yellow, and White having no issue giving them leave to come to Earth. The other Diamonds don't bother Steven as much anymore, but they still keep in contact, and he visits from time to time, albeit not as much as when he gave them input as to how to dismantle the Empire properly. They reach a lot, trying to get more into his life, but if they know about these ... informal meetings, they don't say anything about them. Perhaps Blue told the other two to back off, or they still think that the successor to Pink should be able to deal with her "former subordinates" personally.   
  
Spinel can't stay still. She's swaying back and forth. She smiles, from time to time, as though trying to remember how to do so. She meets Steven's eye, and they exchange a moment. She's come a long way. He even thinks she's made a face at, someone, or everything here. But it's quick, and she's gone back to fidgeting, bobbing her head up and down like a Jack in the Box. The anxiety on her face is clear. Jasper looks at her, and rolls her eyes. Eye-Ball is too busy attacking the food. Pink Pearl smiles politely, but reservedly. He's made it clear that he's glad to see her ... what? Again?   
  
Eye-Ball asks where the Chaaaps are. Steven feels a little foolish, realizing that he only got them when the Nephrites, especially the Nephrite that used to be Centipeetle, still came to this meeting. Nephrite herself still visits Steven, and told him to give his best to everyone here: that she knows where they are, and to some extent how they feel. Sometimes, she even gives him rides on the old Colony Ship she and Peridot repaired: all for a bag of said Chaaaaps. Lately, she's gotten more interested in fry bits more than anything. Luckily, they have some of those on hand, and Steven pushes his bowl towards Eye-Ball to try instead.   
  
It's quiet for a while. A little tense, but not unpleasant. Jasper looks a little disgusted with Eye-Ball and some of the others eating, and she particularly frowns at the watermelon dishes. Interestingly enough, Spinel grabs that plate. She takes the watermelon pieces and ... before Pearl can get up, she begins ... juggling them. It's strange, Steven thinks to himself as she watches her. When he used the Rejuvenator on her, and she was reset to that smaller, smoother version of herself, she did the same thing when everyone else lost their memory as well. Her face is still streaked with black lines, and she looks older, but that same impulse to play is still there. Maybe it makes her comfortable. Eye-Ball starts laughing. She's genuinely amused. Jasper gives her the stink-eye, though she doesn't say anything else. Pink Pearl ... kind of smiles a bit, probably remembering Pink juggling back in the Palace thousands of years ago.   
  
Steven's surprised when it's Pink Pearl that speaks first. She talks about how she was supposed to be Pink's aide. She actually looks at Pearl when she says this, and Pearl smiles back, a little distant but understanding. Pink Pearl talks about all the antics they used to get into, how long they hid it from the other Diamonds, how much they got away with. She gets quiet for a bit, as Spinel's mouth settles into a grim line but continues to juggle, and Jasper looks away. Pink Pearl doesn't talk about her face, though she touches it, softly, running her fingers down the cracks. She doesn't talk about what happened, or how White Diamond ended up taking literal possession of her. All she says is that it seemed like yesterday, almost literally yesterday, that she had been at Pink's side. And that it's hard to realize that she is gone now.   
  
Pearl, perhaps in solidarity with Pink Pearl, speaks as well. She talks about how she served at Pink Diamond's side, before she realized her purpose. How they went to Earth together and attempted to make a new life. Pearl mentions all of their battles, their fights. Jasper actually takes interest, glaring a little bit, while Eye-Ball gnashes her teeth in an attempt to look threatening. It makes sense, as they had probably fought against the Crystal Gems long before they knew the truth. Steven does notice that Jasper's narrowed eyes soften a bit when Pearl talks about how Rose Quartz went on to find other people to spend time with, and Eye-Ball actually gasps when she talks about Rose sacrificing herself to become Steven ... essentially abandoning her after over five thousand years together. She says it still hurts, and Steven squeezes her hand, showing her that he's not offended by her honesty, as it has nothing to do with him.   
  
Eye-Ball rises up and shouts. She's angry. She talks about how she and her Rubies saw Pink Shattered, and she lied about it. To everyone. She rages, actually pacing back and forth, about how if she had a Pearl ... though she backtracks, looking at Steven and says that of course no being can own another, but if a Pearl had been with her, she would never have abandoned her. Both Pearls look uncomfortable. Steven also begins to notice some steam forming on the blanket. As Bismuth reaches over to grab Eye-Ball ... Jasper beats her to it. She picks up the Ruby by the straps of her uniform, and orders her to calm down.   
  
As Jasper puts the mollified Eye-Ball down, she laughs. It's a bitter sound. To think, she says, that she thought she failed her Diamond, that she hadn't been perfect enough, and this whole time it had been Pink Diamond who had been flawed. How she had been fighting for a person who had been actively strategizing, maneuvering, and working against her. No wonder Rose Quartz's tactics were brilliant, as she had been playing both sides. The strange thing Steven notices, as Jasper says this, is that she puffs her chest out, as though saying those words actually make her feel better. Like Jasper hadn't been at fault, for anything. That's whole other matter for another time, but it beats watching Jasper mope, and glare.   
  
Then, Bismuth speaks, and Steven thinks there might be a problem. Instead, she laughs too. She talks about how much she looked up to Rose Quartz and how at the end of the day, she had disagreed with her assessment to Shatter Homeworld Diamonds, and bubbled her away -- keeping it a secret from the other Crystal Gems -- to not show how extreme they could become, but also to spare Bismuth's name, and protect herself and her fellow Diamonds. How despite rebelling against them, the "upper-crusts," she still didn't want to hurt them. But finding out that she had been playing both sides, too, had felt like a considerable betrayal.

Jasper mutters something about how at least Bismuth had the right idea the first time, how the Homeworld Gems didn't have any such compunctions to deal with Rebel treachery. But her tone is halfhearted. Even Bismuth can see it, as she tells Jasper that they had both been wrong, and she knew it. Bismuth even gets a grudging nod from Jasper for her troubles.   
  
It all goes back and forth for a while. War stories. Prank tales. Some of the more interesting things Pink did. Some of Rose's antics. Pearl's romantic moments with Rose. It inevitably all goes back to the hurt, though. To the feeling of betrayal. And loss.  
  
Pink Pearl doesn't remember all that time passing, but she is glad that she had been freed. Pearl admits she resents Rose a bit for making her keep a secret of her Shattering, and how it almost jeopardized her new family, but that now she is her own person -- as Rose had always tried to get her to be. Eye-Ball mutters about being made a fool of, but admitting it was mostly her own fault. Bismuth sympathizes with Pink Pearl, due to her own secret bubbling, and says she's still annoyed that Rose lied to her, to them all, but she has to admit that she liked the knowledge of knowing she could be more than just her role. Jasper just grunts, but her stance has relaxed just a bit. She is even eating a slice of pizza, which Steven could not have seen coming. 

Then, Spinel starts speaking. 

She talks about what she told Steven. About the Garden. About Pink becoming more distant. How she waited for her. How she waited for six thousand years. And then she found out about everything. No one else speaks as Spinel continues to talk, as she continues to juggle. She talks about how much she hated Pink. How she wished she could have spoken to her, told her off, made her suffer. And how pointless it would have been.   
  
She admits that she almost destroyed this planet. Jasper laughs, and talks about how she had had an idea to gather Corrupted Gems and make an army to take it over, to Fuse with them and become all powerful. Eye-Ball talks about how she and the other Rubies were tasked in finding the Peridot to make sure the Cluster blew up the planet. It, actually gets a little uncomfortable for Steven, until Bismuth admits she would have Shattered the Diamonds and all upper-crust Homeworld Gems back in the day. Pearl also talks about the Homeworld Gems she poofed during the War. Steven and Pink Pearl look at each other, smiling, conciliatory. Bismuth pats Pearl on the back hard. Spinel just looks at everyone and shakes her head. She's actually smiling now. She talks about how ridiculous they all are. How they followed a ridiculous being who had ridiculous ideas, and a ridiculous attention span that changed all of their lives for it. Bismuth actually nods, and tells her that she knows that feeling: about being isolated, and feeling forgotten -- while not even imagining what it would have felt like to experience all of those thousands of years awake, and aware. Jasper talks about always having to prove herself for her failure, isolating herself. Pink Pearl mentions how she barely remembers being separate from everyone else, her control all gone under a Diamond's command. Eye-Ball talks about all the time she spent floating in space. Thinking. Wondering if anyone would bother to find her, a simple Ruby from a failed mission, again.   
  
Something starts to change in Spinel's face as they go on. Though it's subtle, Steven can see it happen.   
  
Then, they begin talking about facing Steven. He should have prepared for this, of course. But it never gets old. Eye-Ball actually has the decency to apologize for trying to take Steven's gem in space, while Steven shakes his head and says that her drifting out there at least allowed her to cool off. Bismuth says that Steven downplays his abilities and was actually able to defeat her in combat -- to poof her -- a proud but sad look on her face especially when looking in Pearl's uncomfortable direction. Jasper grunts, and grudgingly admits that he and his Fusions really did pack a punch, and that she still has a lot to learn about that. Even Pink Pearl mentions vaguely recalling Steven confronting her under White Diamond's control and with her powers of that time. Spinel doesn't say much of anything, but Steven hopes she can see that almost everyone here attacked him at some point. Heck, even Nephrite had nearly melted off his face as a Centipeetle.   
  
But then, the conversation changes.   
  
Eye-Ball admits that Steven had given her many chances before chasing her around in the bubble. Pearl talks about all the time she's spent training Steven, with the others, and how he has come so far since those days. Pink Pearl praises Steven for standing up to White Diamond, and changing everything. Even Jasper admits that Steven tried, many times, to give her a hand. She still thinks she was weak, in so many ways, but at least she has another chance now to be better. Bismuth reiterates that she thought Rose had been an inspiration, but Steven actually came forward and followed through on many of her promises, without the lies, or the mistakes. Without Rose's mistakes. And how much better than her he really was. She then looks to Pearl and asks for no offense, for which Pearl smiles and says none taken: that Rose would be proud of the man that her son had become, that she hadn't been perfect, but one of her best choices had been making Steven. Spinel says nothing, but looks at the ground, still performing.   
  
Finally, this is what makes Steven speak. 

He tells them that his mother hadn't been perfect. He explains how he felt insanely unprepared for the mess she left behind, how it felt like she'd given up after a while, and left him to clean up after all of her mistakes. Steven watches Spinel, knowing he's already talked about some of these things. But then he goes into the rest, the whole lot of it that he dealt with in his mother's Room, that she had been selfish, thoughtless, and naive. She didn't take responsibility for anything that she did, and didn't think about what this would do to her friends, Steven's father, her own people, or Steven himself. He wishes, as he's wished every day, that his mother could be here, to defend herself or answer for her actions. But it's just him.   
  
He sighs as he admits that Rose had not meant to be cruel, and had a lot of growing to do before she became ... what she was on Earth. Before she became his mother. He doesn't excuse her actions, but he understands where a lot of them came from, imagining her fears, her insecurities, her sadness ... But some good came from her. Pearl is independent now. Bismuth is more than just a builder, as she said. Pink Pearl knows how to juggle. Jasper can now take the full legacy of Rose Quartz and become more than just a warrior, if she wants. Even Eye-Ball and her other Ruby sisters can become more than just soldiers. And, he looks at Spinel, for all of her faults, in the end her name -- one or the other -- brought them all together. They are not alone. Rose Quartz began all of it with the dream of a Diamond who had been lonely, but through all of them no one had to be lonely again.   
  
They can all be friends.   
  
Eye-Ball claps at least. Bismuth pats him on the back, and Pearl smiles at him. Jasper just rolls her eyes, but it's just as halfhearted as her arguments with Bismuth. Pink Pearl and Spinel are quiet: especially the latter. Bismuth and Jasper end up arguing more, but there is a camaraderie there that Steven isn't sure Jasper ever had with ... anyone. It's funny how two Gems from two different sides had so much in common. Jasper finally tells Spinel to give her one of those watermelon pieces, which she grabs and eats with perhaps ... too much relish: and by relish, Steven is thankful that this is figurative, as a watermelon with relish is something that Amethyst would devour with no problem, to the disgust of every other being around her. 

Steven notices Pink Pearl squeeze one of Spinel's hands, as the latter gets up and walks off. He looks at Pearl and Bismuth, nodding towards them before going after her.   
  
Spinel stands away from the tree and the blanket. She's looking out at the grass. Steven comes to a respectful distance away from her, and waits. Spinel bends down and takes a blade of grass, playing with the green strand. She says she's glad he stopped her from destroying this world. He says he's glad too. Spinel eventually tells him that she wanted to be a friend, that it was her design, but she was broken. She thought she had to have been. She had to have been if Pink had left there. Then she apologizes for her behaviour, for hurting his friends, for hurting him. That she had left with the Diamonds to become a better friend.   
  
Steven asks her if she thinks it's helped. Spinel shrugs, saying that it all depending on the rotation of the sun or moon or other celestial bodies. She's used to the Diamonds and their different perspectives by now, but she hoped to one day come back here. To see if maybe ...  
  
Steven approaches her. He is mindful of how she could close the distance between them with her limbs if she really wanted to. But she doesn't. He comes up to her and they look out at the sunset. Finally, he says what he had been meaning to say from the very beginning, from when she had been reset into her previous, playful self. From when he left her by accident all those times. From when he saw her heartbreak again in the Garden. From their misunderstanding on the Injector. From when he saved her. From when she left.   
  
Steven tells Spinel that he's sorry for what his mother did to her and that, in the end, it was her loss.   
  
Spinel turns around. He sees her eyes. They are filled with tears. She says she knows that he means it. But wonders how he can forgive her. Steven laughs, and reminds her how most of the Gems here had come to kill him, one way or another. But now they are friends. Now they can be friends.   
  
Spinel asks him if that's what he wants. Steven tells her, honestly, that he wishes his mother had taken her from Homeworld. That he, years ago, would have loved to have her as a fellow Crystal Gem. That he would have appreciated her more when was young, but that he cares for her now. He opens his arms to her, and asks her if she wants to be his friend.  
  
When Spinel comes forward, Steven wraps his arms around her. She wraps hers around him multiple times, and cries. He can feel her crying. He rubs her back as years, millennia of pain, drains out of her. He asks, if she's comfortable, if she wants to visit the Temple at some point, that the others will forgive her like he did. Spinel murmurs that she will think about it.   
  
They come back to the party. Steven notices Pearl and Pink Pearl talking. Spinel bounces over, and points at something that Pink Pearl is holding in her hands. Pink Pearl looks up at Steven, and hands the object -- a box -- to him. He wonders what is inside. He opens the box, or activates it and sees ... a circle with two small triangles on the top. And in the centre is a pink sweet-smelling substance in the form of a gem. It takes him a while, as he looks at Pearl and Pink Pearl. Pearl tells him that she had been talking to Pink Pearl about some of the things that he likes.  
  
It's a one-eyed cat. A cookie cat.   
  
Cookie Cat.  
  
Eye-Ball says it looks like her, and Pink Pearl, that them one-eyed Gems needed to stick together. Jasper slaps her aside when she tries to take this Homeworld version of an anthropomorphic ice-cream sandwich. Steven has to admit, he hadn't seen this one coming. He offers to split it with everyone, giving the first piece to Spinel. He remembers just how quickly she took to eating when they hung out together after the Rejuvenator.   
  
He is right. She likes food. And she looks good when she is genuinely happy. 


	18. Prime Facet

Steven blinks. 

He regains his sense of reality as the Gem Fusion removes her lips from his forehead, and both Garnet and Padparadscha un-fuse from the force of their combined Vision. Padparadscha, for her part, brushes off her orange skirts. Then, she curtsies to Steven and tells him that he will soon see many of the possibilities of space-time in all the things that could have been, or could still be.   
  
After Padparadscha walks away, with a satisfied smile on her face, Garnet walks up to Steven. He shakes his head, the multitude of different timelines, like different facets of a Gem still flooding through his head like stars. It's like that time the Crystal Gems rescued Steven from space, when Garnet and the others revealed to him what they thought was the truth about Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond, when he thanks Garnet for telling him everything this day.   
  
Garnet, for her part, ruffles his hair and walks off to let Steven continue his work.

Steven lays out the pink picnic blanket under the tree. He will find out, soon enough, if the others have accepted his invitation. Especially those from Homeworld. So many different possibilities flowed through his mind now, on what would have happened if Spinel had entered their lives at any other point, or no point at all. He remembers when the Diamonds lifted her away. He recalls the look she gave him. With some regret, he thinks about how he treated her when she was here, before and after her memories had returned from the Rejuvenator's effects. 

It's not so much, now, after everything that he would go back for her. It's whether or not he would call her back, and if she felt ready to accept.  
  
And he has asked her to come back.  
  
Steven's mother, Rose Quartz or Pink Diamond, could have made many decisions that might have changed his association with Spinel, that might have made so many different dynamics, or none at all. The potentials still stagger him. But none of them matter. Because now, after all this time, Steven realizes it doesn't matter whether or not his mother did anything with Spinel.   
  
What matters is what he does with her right now.   
  
Because, if she allows it, if she's ready, Steven Universe is more than ready to begin the journey of having Spinel become another friend.   
  
FIN


End file.
